OPTO-ELECTRONIC GEODETIC SURVEYING INSTRUMENT

A geodetic surveying instrument (1) comprising a sighting unit (23) for aiming in a target direction (t) at a measurement target point, a defined axis of rotation for setting the target direction (t) by rotation about the axis (v, h), an optical angle encoder (2) for determining the target direction (3), having a code carrier (3) and at least one image sensor (4) for capturing an image of code -denoted code image (11)- of the code carrier (3), whereby the code carrier (3) and image sensor (4) are rotatable relative to one another about the defined axis of rotation (v) as a first degree of freedom. The controller (25) is configured to determine the target direction (t) based on evaluation of a code image (11) of the image sensor (4). The target direction (t) is determined not only with respect to a rotational position in said first degree of freedom of code carrier (3) relative to image sensor (4) but also with respect to a further position in at least a further degree of freedom of code carrier (3) relative to image sensor (4).