To provide a surveying instrument capable of evaluating tracking performance without using a device other than the surveying instrument. In order to attain the object described above, a surveying instrument includes a tracking section that detects a position of a target from a shot image, a virtual target position calculating section, a virtual tracking section that converts a position of a virtual target as if it was captured by the tracking section, a tracking arithmetic section that handles an output of the virtual tracking section the same as an output of the tracking section and determines rotational movements of a horizontal shaft and a vertical shaft, a motor control section, motors that rotate the horizontal shaft and the vertical shaft, and encoders that detect rotation amounts of the horizontal shaft and the vertical shaft.