device consisting of a flat mirror that is turned slowly by a motor to reflect the Sun continuously into a fixed telescope. The mirror is mounted to rotate about an axis through its front surface that points to a celestial pole and is driven at the rate of one revolution in 48 hours. The telescope image is then stationary and nonrotating. The coelostat is particularly useful in eclipse expeditions when elaborate equatorial mounting of telescopes is impossible. Other instruments applying the principle of the coelostat for similar observations are the heliostat, which produces a rotating image of the Sun, and the siderostat, which is like a heliostat but is used to observe stars.