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One of the two points of an orbit, as of a planet or satellite, which are at the greatest and least distance from the central body, corresponding to the aphelion and perihelion of a planet, or to the apogee and perigee of the moon. The more distant is called the higher apsis; the other, the lower apsis; and the line jo…

te. -- As*cend"ing*ly, adv. Ascending latitude (Astron.), the increasing latitude of a planet. Ferguson. -- Ascending line (Geneol.), the line of relationship traced backward or through one's ancestors. One's father and mother, grandfather and grandmother, etc., are in the line direct ascending. -- Ascending node ha…

The situation of planets or stars with respect to one another, or the angle formed by the rays of light proceeding from them and meeting at the eye; the joint look of planets or stars upon each other or upon the earth. Milton.

A starlike body; esp. one of the numerous small planets whose orbits lie between those of Mars and Jupiter; -- called also planetoids and minor planets.

The determination of the brightness of stars, and also of the sun, moon, and planets. --As`tro*pho`to*met"ric*al (#), a.

One of certain girdles or zones on the surface of the planets Jupiter and Saturn, supposed to be of the nature of clouds.

restrain, or hold by physical force or influence of any kind; as, attraction binds the planets to the sun; frost binds the earth, or the streams. He bindeth the floods from overflowing. Job xxviii. 11. Whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years. Luke xiii. 16.

An aspect of the planets when they are distant from each other by twice the fifth part of a great circle -- that is, twice 72 degrees.

Body servant, a valet. -- The bodies seven (Alchemy), the metals corresponding to the planets. [Obs.] Sol gold is, and Luna silver we threpe (=call), Mars yren (=iron), Mercurie quicksilver we clepe, Saturnus lead, and Jupiter is tin, and Venus coper. Chaucer. -- Body snatcher, one who secretly removes without right…

as meat over the fire; to be greatly heated, or to be made uncomfortable with heat. The planets and comets had been broiling in the sun. Cheyne.

A plant of the genus Anchusa, and especially the A. officinalis, sometimes called alkanet; oxtongue. Small wild bugloss, the Asperugo procumbens and the Lycopsis arvensis. -- Viper's bugloss, a species of Echium.

A kind of helmet. [Written also burganet.] Shak.

t; ascertained or conjectured as a result of calculation; as, the calculated place of a planet; the calculated velocity of a cannon ball.

Chief; superior. [R.] captain jewes in the carcanet. Shak.

A description of apparent spots on the disk of the sun, or on planets.

Centripetal force (Mech.), a force whose direction is towards a center, as in case of a planet revolving round the sun, the center of the system, See Centrifugal force, under Centrifugal. -- Centripetal impression (Physiol.), an impression (sensory) transmitted by an afferent nerve from the exterior of the body inward…

To move around; to revolve around. Other planets circle other suns. Pope.

One of the moons or satellites of the planet Jupiter. [Obs.] Derham.

neral proposition, as when Kepler discovered that the various observed positions of the planet Mars were points in an ellipse. "The colligation of facts." Whewell. Colligation is not always induction, but induction is always colligation. J. S. Mill.

So near the sun as to be obscured or eclipsed by his light, as the moon or planets when not more than eight degrees and a half from the sun. [Obs.] Planets that are oft combust. Milton.