For decades, it also served as the official timekeeping station for the entire Bay Area, measuring time with its transit telescope.
They are little used today, having been replaced over time by transit telescopes, astrometry techniques, and satellites such as Hipparcos.
The main instruments of the new observatory were a 6.4-inch (16 cm) transit telescope and a 3.5-inch (9 cm) azimuth circle.
He installed a transit telescope above his college ante-chapel.
After much delay the instrumentation was completed in 1831 with delivery of the transit telescope.
Other equipment included an orrery, spectroscope and a transit telescope.
The stars could be seen by the use of a transit telescope.
Sometime around 1810 he decided to fabricate surveying instruments, selling chains, compasses, and small transit telescopes.
One of the new instruments was a small transit telescope used to observe the position of the stars as they cross the celestial meridian.
A small observatory consisting of a 4-inch refractor and a small transit telescope was constructed by 1872.