The album contains archival documents related to the building, instruments and observations at the Madras Observatory. It mainly includes an old photo of the Madras Observatory, a photocopy of the first observation taken in 1786 from the observatory, two pictures of Kater's pendulum hung in front of the Haswell clock in the observatory, a sketch of the Madras Observatory building from 1848 Taylor's catalogue and painting of Madras coast by Daniel.

This item was an instrument used in surveying land, alignment, testing, and calibrating optical Instruments. It is basically a refracting telescope. Whose optical elements tilt angles with high accuracy of the order of arcsecs.