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In the Ptolemaic system, the supposed circular orbit of a planet about the earth, but with the earth not in its center.

rver. A satellite is eclipsed by entering the shadow of its primary. The obscuration of a planet or star by the moon or a planet, though of the nature of an eclipse, is called an occultation. The eclipse of a small portion of the sun by Mercury or Venus is called a transit of the planet.

g (Arch.), a molding whose section is made up of two curves meeting in an angle. -- Edge plane. (a) (Carp.) A plane for edging boards. (b) (Shoemaking) A plane for edging soles. -- Edge play, a kind of swordplay in which backswords or cutlasses are used, and the edge, rather than the point, is employed. -- Edge rail…

Having an edge planed, -- said of a board. Knight.

The passing off from the sun's disk of an inferior planet, in a transit.

nitude considered; as, in a solid an element may be infinitesimal portion between any two planes that are separated and indefinitely small distance. In the calculus, element is sometimes used as synonymous with differential.

The movement of the axis of a piece in a vertical plane; also, the angle of elevation, that is, the angle between the axis of the piece and the line odirection.

The elliptical orbit of a planet. The Sun flies forward to his brother Sun; The dark Earth follows wheeled in her ellipse. Tennyson.

A solid, all plane sections of which are ellipses or circles. See Conoid, n., 2 (a).

r pertaining to an ellipse; having the form of an ellipse; oblong, with rounded ends. The planets move in elliptic orbits. Cheyne.

To depart to, or be at, a distance; esp., to recede apparently from the sun, as a planet in its orbit. [R.]

The angular distance of a planet from the sun; as, the elongation of Venus or Mercury.

A plane figure of eleven sides and angles.

A polygon or plane figure with nine sides and nine angles; a nonagon.

Any tabular statement of the assigned places of a heavenly body, as a planet or comet, on several successive days.

One who studies the daily motions and positions of the planets. Howell.

ce of a greater circle; or a small circle, whose center, being fixed in the deferent of a planet, is carried along with the deferent, and yet, by its own peculiar motion, carries the body of the planet fastened to it round its proper center. The schoolmen were like astronomers which did feign eccentries, and epicycles,…

The date at which a planet or comet has a longitude or position.

A circle around whose circumference a planet or the center of ann epicycle was conceived to move uniformly; -- called also eccentric equator.

pparent time. -- Equation of the center (Astron.), the difference between the place of a planet as supposed to move uniformly in a circle, and its place as moving in an ellipse. -- Equations of condition (Math.), equations formed for deducing the true values of certain quantities from others on which they depend, whe…