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transit

(Encyclopedia)transit, in astronomy, passage of a body across a meridian or passage of a small body across the visible disk of a larger one. (The passage of a large body across a smaller one is called an eclipse or...

mass transit

(Encyclopedia)mass transit, public transportation systems designed to move large numbers of passengers. The history of mass transportation is intimately connected to industrialization, urbanization, and the sepa...

transit compass

(Encyclopedia)transit compass: see surveying.

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...

rapid transit

(Encyclopedia)rapid transit, transportation system designed to allow passenger travel within or throughout an urban area, usually employing surface, elevated, or underground railway systems or some combination of t...

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...

Rømer, Olaus

(Encyclopedia)Rømer, Olaus or Ole ōläˈo͝os, ōˈlə römˈər [key], 1644–1710, Danish astronomer. He is noted for his discovery that light travels at a definite speed and does not move through space instant...

Horrocks, Jeremiah

(Encyclopedia)Horrocks or Horrox, Jeremiah both: hŏrˈəks [key], 1618?–1641, English astronomer. He made the first observation of the transit of Venus. His Venus in sole visa, which narrates this experience, wa...