Search the Dictionary

sible ascent of our Savior on the fortieth day after his resurrection. (Acts i. 9.) Also, Ascension Day.

Relating to ascension; connected with ascent; ascensive; tending upward; as, the ascensional power of a balloon. Ascensional difference (Astron.), the difference between oblique and right ascension; -- used chiefly as expressing the difference between the time of the rising or setting of a body and six o'clock, or six…

The act of reascending; a remounting.

The three days preceding the Feast of the Ascension.

ity differs from another, or the remainder left after subtracting the one from the other. Ascensional difference. See under Ascensional.

each carrying a graduated circle, the one for measuring declination, and the other right ascension, or the hour angle, so that the telescope may be directed, even in the daytime, to any star or other object whose right ascension and declination are known. The motion in right ascension is sometimes communicated by cloc…

in the terms which are observed as holidays in the inns of court and chancery (Candlemas, Ascension, St. John Baptist's, and All Saints' Days); called also Dies non juridici. -- Grand duchess. (a) The wife or widow of a grand duke. (b) A lady having the sovereignty of a duchy in her own right. (c) In Russia, a daughte…

), the blessed thistle. See under Thistle. -- Holy Thursday. (Eccl.) (a) (Episcopal Ch.) Ascension day. (b) (R. C. Ch.) The Thursday in Holy Week; Maundy Thursday. -- Holy war, a crusade; an expedition carried on by Christians against the Saracens in the Holy Land, in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries,…

e plane of the earth's equator, and graduated in hours and subdivisions of hours of right ascension. (c) A small brass circle attached to the north pole of an artificial globe, and divided into twenty-four parts or hours. It is used to mark differences of time in working problems on the globe. -- Hour hand, the hand o…

A large squirrel fish (Holocentrus ascensionis) of Florida and the West Indies.

the focus of the object glass of a telescope, and used to determine differences of right ascension and declination between stars by observations of the times at which the stars cross the inner or outer periphery of the ring. -- Double image micrometer, a micrometer in which two images of an object are formed in the f…

ection in a direct line was strong, in an oblique but weak. Baker. Oblique angle, Oblique ascension, etc. See under Angle,Ascension, etc. -- Oblique arch (Arch.), an arch whose jambs are not at right angles with the face, and whose intrados is in consequence askew. -- Oblique bridge, a skew bridge. See under Bridge,…

table instruments, some magnitude, as the time of an occultation, with a clock; the right ascension of a star, with a transit instrument and clock; the sun's altitude, or the distance of the moon from a star, with a sextant; the temperature, with a thermometer, etc.

Position in the heavens, as of a heavenly body; -- usually defined by its right ascension and declination, or by its latitude and longitude. Place of arms (Mil.), a place calculated for the rendezvous of men in arms, etc., as a fort which affords a safe retreat for hospitals, magazines, etc. Wilhelm. -- High place (Sc…

A returning ascent or ascension; acclivity. Cowper.

the measurement of refraction. -- Refraction of latitude, longitude, declination, right ascension, etc., the change in the apparent latitude, longitude, etc., of a heavenly body, due to the effect of atmospheric refraction. -- Terrestrial refraction, the change in the apparent altitude of a distant point on or near…

Upright; erect from a base; having an upright axis; not oblique; as, right ascension; a right pyramid or cone.

es before in use. Hooker. Rogation days (Eccl.), the three days which immediately precede Ascension Day; -- so called as being days on which the people, walking in procession, sang litanies of special supplication. -- Rogation flower (Bot.), a European species of milkwort (Polygala vulgaris); -- so called from its for…

The act of sitting, or the state of being seated. [Archaic] So much his ascension into heaven and his session at the right hand of God do import. Hooker. But Viven, gathering somewhat of his mood, . . . Leaped from her session on his lap, and stood. Tennyson.

s appear to have their places, and on which the various astronomical circles, as of right ascension and declination, the equator, ecliptic, etc., are conceived to be drawn; an ideal geometrical sphere, with the astronomical and geographical circles in their proper positions on it.