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Museum

Ulugbek Observatory Museum

Ulugbek Observatory Museum Tapestry, Samarkand
Allan_Grey

SamarkandUzbekistan • 925 m

The observatory of Samarkand was built in the 1420s by the Timurid astronomer Ulugh Beg, it is considered by scholars to have been one of the finest observatories in the Islamic world. 
The remains of the observatory were found and studied by archaeologist V.L. Vyatkin in 1908. A study of one of the 17th century documents yielded a precise description of the location of the observatory.
Here in 1437, the "Gurgan Zij" was compiled - a catalog of the starry sky, in which 1018 stars were described. The duration of the sidereal year was also determined there: 365 days, 6 hours, 10 minutes, 8 seconds (with an error of + 58 seconds).

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