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An old instrument used for taking altitudes; -- called also geometrical square, and line of shadows.

Ascending; climbing; rank in growth; exuberant. The rampant stalk is of unusual altitude. I. Taylor.

The correction which is to be deducted from the apparent altitude of a heavenly body on account of atmospheric refraction, in order to obtain the true altitude. Angle of refraction (Opt.), the angle which a refracted ray makes with the perpendicular to the surface separating the two media traversed by the ray. -- Coni…

An instrument, formerly used for taking the sun's altitude, consisting of a brass ring suspended by a swivel, with a hole at one side through which a solar ray entering indicated the altitude on the graduated inner surface opposite.

ol.), the ounce. -- Snow line, lowest limit of perpetual snow. In the Alps this is at an altitude of 9,000 feet, in the Andes, at the equator, 16,000 feet. -- Snow mouse (Zoöl.), a European vole (Arvicola nivalis) which inhabits the Alps and other high mountains. -- Snow pheasant (Zoöl.), any one of several species…

s, distance and bearing, of places on the earth, and the right ascension and declination, altitude and azimuth, rising and setting, etc., of the heavenly bodies; spherical geometry. -- Music of the spheres. See under Music.

An instrument for determining altitudes by the boiling point of water.

rld, or under any elevation of the pole. -- Universal instrument (Astron.), a species of altitude and azimuth instrument, the peculiarity of which is, that the object end of the telescope is placed at right angles to the eye end, with a prism of total reflection at the angle, and the eye end constitutes a portion of t…

stron. & Geod.), an angle measured on a vertical circle, called an angle of elevation, or altitude, when reckoned from the horizon upward, and of depression when downward below the horizon. -- Vertical anthers (Bot.), such anthers as stand erect at the top of the filaments. -- Vertical circle (Astron.), an azimuth ci…

r figure, lying near the ecliptic, its base being on the horizon, and its apex at varying altitudes. It is to be seen only in the evening, after twilight, and in the morning before dawn. It is supposed to be due to sunlight reflected from multitudes of meteoroids revolving about the sun nearly in the plane of the eclip…