vertical circle

American  

noun

Astronomy.

1. a great circle on the celestial sphere passing through the zenith.

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vertical circle British  

noun

1. astronomy a great circle on the celestial sphere passing through the zenith and perpendicular to the horizon

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vertical circle Scientific  

1. A great circle on the celestial sphere that passes through the zenith and the nadir and thus is perpendicular to the horizon.

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Etymology

Origin of vertical circle

First recorded in 1550–60

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

vertical circle

The flagman swings his lamp, or his flag or hand, in a vertical circle at half-arm's length across the track.

From Time Magazine Archive

Rhumb, rumb, or rum, n. any vertical circle, hence any point of the compass.—ns.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various

The five-foot vertical circle, which Piazzi with some difficulty induced Ramsden to complete for him in 1789, was the first divided instrument constructed in what may be called the modern style.

From A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century Fourth Edition by Agnes M. (Agnes Mary) Clerke

In this event the cloud will exhibit no iridescence, but, instead of it, a vertical circle through the sun will present itself.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 613, October 1, 1887 by Various

These disadvantages are overcome by adding still another graduated circle to the instrument, with its axis perpendicular to the axis of the vertical circle, thus forming a three-circle goniometer.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 2 "Gloss" to "Gordon, Charles George" by Various

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