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Meridian

(Encyclopedia)Meridian mrd´n [key], city (1990 pop. 41,036), seat of Lauderdale co., E Miss., near the Ala. line; settled 1831, inc. 1860. It is an important rail and highway point and the trade and shippi...

prime meridian

(Encyclopedia)prime meridian, meridian that is designated zero degree (0°) longitude, from which all other longitudes are measured. By international convention, it passes through the site of the Royal Observatory ...

celestial meridian

(Encyclopedia)celestial meridian, vertical circle passing through the north celestial pole and an observer's zenith. It is an axis in the altazimuth coordinate system. ...

Greenwich mean time

(Encyclopedia)Greenwich mean time or Greenwich meridian time (GMT), the former name for mean solar time at the site of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England, which is located on the prime meridian. In 1925 th...

transit instrument

(Encyclopedia)transit instrument or transit, telescope devised to observe stars as they cross the meridian and used for determining time. Its viewing tube swings on a rigid horizontal axis restricting its movements...

longitude

(Encyclopedia)longitude ln´jtood [key], angular distance on the earth's surface measured along any latitude line such as the equator east or west of the prime meridian. A meridian of longitude is an imagin...

culminate

(Encyclopedia)culminate, in astronomy, the maximum height in the sky reached by a celestial body on a given day. At the culminate the body is crossing the observer's celestial meridian and is said to be in upper tr...

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