AUTUMN n.
lled "the fall." Astronomically, it begins in the northern temperate zone at the autumnal equinox, about September 23, and ends at the winter solstice, about December 23; but in popular language, autumn, in America, comprises September, October, and November.
AUTUMNAL a.
Past the middle of life; in the third 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.…
HARVEST n.
est moon, the moon near the full at the time of harvest in England, or about the autumnal equinox, when, by reason of the small angle that is made by the moon's orbit with the horizon, it rises nearly at the same hour for several days. -- Harvest mouse (Zoöl.), a very small European field mouse (Mus minutus). It build…
LONGITUDE n.
The distance in degrees, reckoned from the vernal equinox, on the ecliptic, to a circle at right angles to the ecliptic passing through the heavenly body whose longitude is designated; as, the longitude of Capella is 79º. Geocentric longitude (Astron.), the longitude of a heavenly body as seen from the earth. -- Helio…
LUNISOLAR a.
un and moon. Lunisolar precession (Astron.), that portion of the annual precession of the equinoxes which depends on the joint action of the sun and moon. -- Lunisolar year, a period of time, at the end of which, in the Julian calendar, the new and full moons and the eclipses recur on the same days of the week and mon…