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The great circle of the celestial sphere, coincident with the plane of the earth's equator; -- so called because when the sun is in it, the days and nights are of equal length; hence called also the equinoctial, and on maps, globes, etc., the equinoctial line. Equator of the sun or of a planet (Astron.), the great circ…

Of or pertaining to the equator; as, equatorial climates; also, pertaining to an equatorial instrument.

So as to have motion or direction parallel to the equator.

balances itself horizontally, having no dip. The aclinic line is also termed the magnetic equator. Prof. August.

tern, occiduous, or occasive. It is also northern or southern, when north or south of the equator.

The inhabitants of the earth, living on different sides of the equator, whose shadows at noon are cast in opposite directions. The inhabitants of the north and south temperate zones are always Antiscians. Brande & C.

ve under the same meridian, but on opposite parallels of latitude, north and south of the equator.

s, which rises with a star, or other celestial body, in a right sphere; or the arc of the equator intercepted between the first point of Aries and that point of the equator that comes to the meridian with the star; -- expressed either in degrees or in time. -- Oblique ascension (Astron.), an arc of the equator, interc…

A stereographic projection of the sphere on the plane of a great circle, as the equator, or a meridian; a planisphere. Whewell.

l ocean. Austral signs (Astron.), the last six signs of the zodiac, or those south of the equator.

stage. An autumnal matron. Hawthorne. Autumnal equinox, the time when the sun crosses the equator, as it proceeds southward, or when it passes the ~ point. -- ~= point, the point of the equator intersected by the ecliptic, as the sun proceeds southward; the first point of Libra. -- ~= signs, the signs Libra, Scorpio,…

of the nature of, or resembling, an axis; around an axis. To take on an axial, and not an equatorial, direction. Nichol.

art, when folded over along the axis, shall coincide with the other part. -- Axis of the equator, ecliptic, horizon (or other circle considered with reference to the sphere on which it lies), the diameter of the sphere which is perpendicular to the plane of the circle. Hutton. -- Axis of the Ionic capital (Arch.), a…

A member of one of the great family of Negroid tribes occupying equatorial and southern Africa. These tribes include, as important divisions, the Kafirs, Damaras, Bechuanas, and many tribes whose names begin with Aba-, Ama-, Ba-, Ma-, Wa-, variants of the Bantu plural personal prefix Aba-, as in Ba-ntu, or Aba-ntu, its…

One of thirty regions or zones, parallel to the equator, into which the surface of the earth from the equator to the pole was divided, according to the successive increase of the length of the midsummer day.

upy the same place in space, as two equal triangles, when placed one on the other. If the equator and the ecliptic had coincided, it would have rendered the annual revoluton of the earth useless. Cheyne.

One of two great circles intersecting at right angles in the poles of the equator. One of them passes through the equinoctial points, and hence is denominated the equinoctial colure; the other intersects the equator at the distance of 90º from the former, and is called the solstitial colure. Thrice the equinoctial line…

ridian; to be vertical or directly overhead. As when his beams at noon Culminate from the equator. Milton.

The angular distance of any object from the celestial equator, either northward or southward.

The Dolphin, a constellation near the equator and east of Aquila.