Het instrumentarium van de Utrechtse Sterrenwacht

The instruments of the astronomical observatory of Utrecht University In this article the author traces the provenance of the astronomical, geodetical and navigational instruments from the collection of the astronomical observatroy of Utrecht University during the period 1723-1839. In 1723 Petrus van Musschenbroek was appointed professor of physics and mathematics; in 1732 he was also appointed professor of astronomy and on both occasions he ordered a series of instruments some of which are in Utrecht University Museum now. During the rest of the eighteenth century his successors bought only a few instruments, most of them are still in the possession of the university. In 1815, after the French occupation of the Netherlands had ended, the university, until then run by the community of Utrecht, became a national university. The young professor of physics and astronomy, Gernt Moll, started buying new instruments, most of them English. After his .sudden death in 1838 a new inventory was made by his successor, R. Van Rees. In this inventory the instruments are numbered; identification of the instruments is much easier from that time on.