Baily's beads

[ bey-leez ]

plural noun
  1. spots of light that appear to encircle the moon, resembling a string of luminous beads, visible immediately before and after a total eclipse, caused by the sun's light shining between the mountains on the moon's surface.

Origin of Baily's beads

1
Named after Francis Baily (1774–1844), English astronomer who first described them

Words Nearby Baily's beads

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British Dictionary definitions for Baily's beads

Baily's beads

/ (ˈbeɪlɪz) /


pl n
  1. the brilliant points of sunlight that appear briefly around the moon, just before and after a total eclipse

Origin of Baily's beads

1
C19: named after Francis Baily (died 1844), English astronomer who described them

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for Baily's beads

Baily's beads

[ lēz ]


  1. A discontinuous, beadlike pattern of sunlight visible along the edge of the darkened Moon's disk in the seconds before and after totality during a full solar eclipse. The pattern is caused by light shining through the uneven lunar topography silhouetted along the curved edges of the disk. Baily's beads are named after British astronomer Francis Baily (1774-1844), who first observed them in 1836.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.