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Kitt Peak National Observatory

(Encyclopedia)Kitt Peak National Observatory, astronomical observatory located southwest of Tucson, Ariz.; it was founded in 1958 under contract with the National Science Foundation and is administered by the Assoc...

Miass

(Encyclopedia)Miass mēäsˈ [key], river (c.390 mi/630 km long), W Siberian Russia. It rises in the eastern slopes of the S Urals and flows N and NE past Chelyabinsk into the Iset, a tributary of the Ob River. The...

sackbut

(Encyclopedia)sackbut săkˈbət [key], Renaissance name for the slide trombone, probably derived from the old French word sacqueboute, which means “pull-push.” The instrument achieved its present form in the 1...

bass viol

(Encyclopedia)bass viol bās vīˈəl [key], properly, the largest instrument of the viol family. The term now refers most often to the double bass. ...

sonata

(Encyclopedia)sonata sənäˈtə [key], in music, type of instrumental composition that arose in Italy in the 17th cent. At first the term merely distinguished an instrumental piece from a piece with voice, which w...

Graham, George

(Encyclopedia)Graham, George, 1674?–1751, English instrument maker. A clockmaker by trade, Graham designed clocks and watches that earned him membership in the Royal Society and were still manufactured into the p...

crumhorn

(Encyclopedia)crumhorn, J-shaped, double-reed musical instrument used throughout Europe from the 15th cent. through the 17th cent. It possesses a soft, reedy tone. The reed is enclosed by a wooden cap with a hole a...

spectrophotometer

(Encyclopedia)spectrophotometer, instrument for measuring and comparing the intensities of common spectral lines in the spectra of two different sources of light. See photometry; spectroscope; spectrum. ...

stereopticon

(Encyclopedia)stereopticon stĕrēŏpˈtĭkən [key], optical projection instrument making multiple use of the magic lantern. The magic lantern uses lenses to throw on a screen a magnified image from a transparent ...

Biwa

(Encyclopedia)Biwa bēˈwä [key], lake, c.40 mi (60 km) long and from 2 to 12 mi (3.2–19 km) wide, Shiga prefecture, S Honshu, Japan. The lake, shaped like the biwa, a musical instrument, is the largest in Japan...