definition
A device that includes a plane mirror which turns so as to keep reflecting sunlight toward a predetermined target, compensating for the sun's apparent motions in the sky. The target may be a physical object, distant from the heliostat, or a direction in space, and is almost always stationary relative to the heliostat, so the light is reflected in a fixed direction.
Foucault's heliostat reflects the rays horizontally in any required direction.
In the absence of a heliostat it is more convenient to obtain a point of light with the aid of a lens of short focus.
Silbermann's heliostat reflects the rays in any direction.
One of the most important applications of the heliostat is as an adjunct to the newer forms of ' horizontal telescopes (q.v.) and in conjunction with spectroscopic telescopes in observations of eclipses.
In the absence of a heliostat the latter was the more convenient.