Search the Dictionary

system of calculations depends, or general conclusions are based; as, the elements of a planet's orbit.

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

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.

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.

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, a…

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.

arent 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, when…

quinoctial, and on maps, globes, etc., the equinoctial line. Equator of the sun or of a planet (Astron.), the great circle whose plane passes through through the center of the body, and is perpendicular to its axis of revolution. -- Magnetic equator. See Aclinic.

Wandering; deviating from an appointed course, or from a direct path; roving. Seven planets or errant stars in the lower orbs of heaven. Sir T. Browne.

; roving about without a fixed destination; wandering; moving; -- hence, applied to the planets as distinguished from the fixed stars. The earth and each erratic world. Blackmore.

Exercising its highest influence; -- said of a planet. [Obs.] Chaucer.

That place of a planet in the zodiac in which it was supposed to exert its strongest influence.

bent like a sickle; as, a falcate leaf; a falcate claw; -- said also of the moon, or a planet, when horned or crescent- formed.

The relation of end or purpose to its means. Janet.

same apparent position and distance with respect to each other, thus distinguished from planets and comets.

ed to heliocentric, as seen from the sun; as, the geocentric longitude or latitude of a planet.