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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



18 words match “EQUINOCTIAL”

EQUINOCTIAL a. 4 definitions
ertaining to an equinox, or the equinoxes, or to the time of equal day and night; as, the equinoctial line.
EQUINOCTIALLY adv.
Towards the equinox.
INTEREQUINOCTIAL a.
Coming between the equinoxes. Summer and winter I have called interequinoctial intervals. F. Balfour.
ASCENSION n.
rrection; -- called also Holy Thursday. -- Right ascension (Astron.), that degree of the equinoctial, counted from the beginning of Aries, 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…
COLURE n.
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 He circled; four times…
EAST a.
Toward the rising sun; or toward the point where the sun rises when in the equinoctial; as, the east gate; the east border; the east side; the east wind is a wind that blows from the east.
ECLIPTIC n.
A great circle of the celestial sphere, making an angle with the equinoctial of about 23º 28'. It is the apparent path of the sun, or the real path of the earth as seen from the sun.
EQUATOR n.
use 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 circle whose plane passes through through the center of the body, and is perpendicular to its axis of revolution.…
EQUIDIURNAL a.
Pertaining to the time of equal day and night; -- applied to the equinoctial line. Whewell.
EQUINOX n. 2 definitions
The time when the sun enters one of the equinoctial points, that is, about March 21 and September 22. See Autumnal equinox, Vernal equinox, under Autumnal and Vernal. When descends on the Atlantic The gigantic Stormwind of the equinox. Longfellow.
HELIOTROPE n.
An instrument or machine for showing when the sun arrived at the tropics and equinoctial line.
LINE n.
The equator; -- usually called the line, or equinoctial line; as, to cross the line.
PARALLEL a.
s equally distant; as, parallel lines; parallel planes. Revolutions . . . parallel to the equinoctial. Hakluyt.
PEGASUS n.
A northen constellation near the vernal equinoctial point. Its three brightest stars, with the brightest star of Andromeda, form the square of Pegasus.
PISCES n.
A zodiacal constellation, including the first point of Aries, which is the vernal equinoctial point; the Fish.
POINT n.
e sphere, and named specifically in each case according to the position intended; as, the equinoctial points; the solstitial points; the nodal points; vertical points, etc. See Equinoctial Nodal.
PRECESSION n.
planets alone. -- Precession of the equinoxes (Astron.), the slow backward motion of the equinoctial points along the ecliptic, at the rate of 50.2" annually, caused by the action of the sun, moon, and planets, upon the protuberant matter about the earth's equator, in connection with its diurnal rotation; -- so called…
SIDEREAL a.
me, mean sidereal time being reckoned from the transit, not of the true, but of the mean, equinoctial point.