Due to the avid interest of the eighteenth-century ruler, Jai Singh II (1688–1743), Jaipur became a centre for the production of astrolabes, scientific instruments which identify stars and planets, and can be used for navigation. This silver astrolabe has a tubular eyepiece commonly seen in astrolabes produced in Jaipur. The reverse of the top section is inscribed with the co-ordinates for Greenwich, the British centre of timekeeping.