A surveying instrument include a surveying instrument including a surveying instrument main body, a measuring direction image pickup module for acquiring a first image, a distance measuring unit for measuring a distance to the object, a projecting direction detecting module for detecting a projecting direction of the distance measuring light, a time detector for generating a signal of a reference time, a downward image pickup module for acquiring a second image, an attitude detector for detecting a tilt of the surveying instrument main body and an arithmetic control module, wherein the arithmetic control module is configured to detect a change between the first images or the second images, determine a measuring point of the object with respect to the vertical lower image based on the change between the images and the detection results of the distance measuring unit and the projecting direction detecting module and the reference time.