Observing Sun’s Altitude During Transit Using Astrolabe As a Teaching Aid in Astrofiqh

This article discusses the accuracy of astrolabe in obtaining sun's altitude data during transit.Astrolabe is an ingenious astronomical instrument which was created both to observe and calculate the coordinates of celestial objects such as stars and planets thousands of years ago.However, various creations of modern instruments made astrolabe to be considered as inaccurate and eventually getting forgotten.Thus, this study attempts to analyses the data of sun's altitude during transit obtained by astrolabe.This is a qualitative study with technical features by adopting document analysis, observation, and comparison analysis approaches.The data analysis process has been conducted by comparing the data obtained by astrolabe and the official data retrieved from Department of Survey and Mapping Malaysia (JUPEM).The finding shows that astrolabe can be used both for observation and calculation purposes and it is still relevant for today's use.This study is quite important to be carried out to create awareness on the importance of ancient astronomical instruments and at the same time to commemorate the golden ages of the Islamic civilization which incorporated hundreds of years of Islamic science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.