Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

119 results found

eclipse

(Encyclopedia)eclipse klps´, – [key] [Gr.,=failing], in astronomy, partial or total obscuring of one celestial body by the shadow of another. Best known are the lunar eclipses, which occur when the earth b...

lunar caustic

(Encyclopedia)lunar caustic: see silver nitrate.

lunar exploration

(Encyclopedia)lunar exploration: see space exploration.

Dyson, Sir Frank Watson

(Encyclopedia)Dyson, Sir Frank Watson d´sn [key], 1868–1939, English astronomer, b. Ashby-de-la-Zouch, grad. Cambridge. He was astronomer royal of Scotland (1905–10) and of England (from 1910). As director...

Algol

(Encyclopedia)Algol l´gl [key], famous variable star in the constellation Perseus; Bayer designation Persei; 1992 position R.A. 3h07.7m, Dec. +40°55. Algol's variation in apparent magnitude, from 2.06 t...

coronagraph

(Encyclopedia)coronagraph kr´ngrf [key], device invented by the French astronomer B. Lyot (1931) for the purpose of observing the corona of the sun and solar prominences occurring in the chromosphere. Be...

De la Rue, Warren

(Encyclopedia)De la Rue, Warren dl´roo, dlroo´ [key], 1815–89, British scientist and inventor. Especially noted as an astronomer, he was a pioneer in celestial photography. He adapted the wet-plate ...

moon

(Encyclopedia)moon, natural satellite of a planet (see satellite, natural) or dwarf planet, in particular, the single natural satellite of the earth. The Earth-Moon System The moon is the earth's nearest neighbor i...

Pickering, William Henry

(Encyclopedia)Pickering, William Henry, 1858–1938, American astronomer, b. Boston, grad. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (B.S., 1879). He taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1880–87) and ...

cycle

(Encyclopedia)cycle, in astronomy, period of time required for the recurrence of some celestial event. The length of a cycle may be measured relative to the sun or to the fixed stars (see sidereal time). A frequent...