Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun an optical instrument used to follow the path of a celestial body and reflect its light into a telescope; it has a movable and a fixed mirror.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun astronomy A device that rotates a telescope so as to keep its orientation constant with relation to the stars.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun optical device used to follow the path of a celestial body and reflect its light into a telescope; has a movable and a fixed mirror

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Related to Latin coelestis ("sky"), corrupted form of caelestis.

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Examples

  • It is the pilot's duty to juggle his ship on her gyros and flywheel with his eyes glued to a measuring telescope, a 'coelostat', to be utterly sure to the extreme limit of the accuracy of his instruments that his ship is aimed exactly right when the jet fires.

    The Rolling Stones Heinlein, Robert A. 1952

  • The "coelostat," in the form given to it by Professor Turner, has proved an invaluable adjunct to eclipse-equipments.

    A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century Fourth Edition 1874

  • But soon after arriving at Sobral that April, Crommelin and his cohorts discovered a serious optical defect on the coelostat mirror for the biggest and the best of the telescopes.

    Savage Peace Ann Hagedorn 2007

  • The problem appeared to be the coelostat, a mirror attached to the large astrographic telescope.

    Savage Peace Ann Hagedorn 2007

  • The problem appeared to be the coelostat, a mirror attached to the large astrographic telescope.

    Savage Peace Ann Hagedorn 2007

  • But soon after arriving at Sobral that April, Crommelin and his cohorts discovered a serious optical defect on the coelostat mirror for the biggest and the best of the telescopes.

    Savage Peace Ann Hagedorn 2007

  • But soon after arriving at Sobral that April, Crommelin and his cohorts discovered a serious optical defect on the coelostat mirror for the biggest and the best of the telescopes.

    Savage Peace Ann Hagedorn 2007

  • The problem appeared to be the coelostat, a mirror attached to the large astrographic telescope.

    Savage Peace Ann Hagedorn 2007

  • One of them is the coelostat, the instrument used in telescopes to keep the images of the stars in place for arbitrarily long periods of exposures.

    Lippmann's and Gabor's Revolutionary Approach to Imaging 2005

  • He contributed to astronomy with his invention of the coelostat, a device which immobilizes the image of a star and its surrounding stars so that a photograph may be taken.

    Gabriel Lippmann - Biography 1967

Comments

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  • Note that coelostat is pronounced "seal-o-stat" as in coelacanth or coeliac disease.

    August 17, 2016

  • A sailor who finds where he's at

    Adjusts to the long and the lat;

    Astronomers though

    To check any flow

    Will stick with a strict coelostat.

    August 17, 2016

  • I was never very skilled with a coelostat

    And singed off my brows with a heliostat

    So 'twas time for a change

    To find a job in my range:

    I'm having a go selling real estat

    August 18, 2016