ephemeris
Americannoun
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a table showing the positions of a heavenly body on a number of dates in a regular sequence.
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an astronomical almanac containing such tables.
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Archaic. an almanac or calendar.
noun
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a table giving the future positions of a planet, comet, or satellite
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an annual publication giving the positions of the sun, moon, and planets during the course of a year, information concerning eclipses, astronomical constants, etc
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obsolete a diary or almanac
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of ephemeris
1545–55; < Latin ephēmeris day book, diary < Greek ephēmerís diary, account book, derivative of ephḗmeros; see ephemeral
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
This is the offset to apply to Chariklo’s ephemeris to fit the observations.
From Nature ● Apr. 4, 2014
To recognize it, it is necessary to have an astronomical ephemeris showing its right ascension and declination, and star maps showing where the parallels of right ascension and declination lie among the stars.
From Side-Lights on Astronomy and Kindred Fields of Popular Science by Newcomb, Simon
Another part of the ephemeris gives the position of the heavenly bodies, not at equidistant intervals, but at transit over some meridian.
From Side-Lights on Astronomy and Kindred Fields of Popular Science by Newcomb, Simon
I take, for example, the ephemeris for the year 1901, and I look under the heading "Jupiter" on page 239, for the month of July.
From Other Worlds Their Nature, Possibilities and Habitability in the Light of the Latest Discoveries by Serviss, Garrett Putman
Gauss published an approximate ephemeris of probable positions when the planet should emerge from the sun’s light.
From History of Astronomy by Forbes, George
It, perhaps, may be important to remark that we could not introduce this change immediately, since the ephemerides are already computed and published for three or four years in advance.
He will find the foreign ephemerides using uniform data worked out in the office of the "American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac" at Washington for the years beginning with 1901.
From The Reminiscences of an Astronomer by Newcomb, Simon
Subsequent ephemerides were prepared with more practical objects.
From Side-Lights on Astronomy and Kindred Fields of Popular Science by Newcomb, Simon
The pictorial journalism of the "Comic Almanacks" is often delicious; no ephemerides, in my knowledge, equal them in sustained humorous effect.
From George Cruikshank by Chesson, W. H.
Since that time, the introduction into foreign ephemerides of the improved tables of Le Verrier have rendered them, on the whole, rather more accurate than our own.
From Side-Lights on Astronomy and Kindred Fields of Popular Science by Newcomb, Simon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
