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

Example Sentences

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

Az�imuth of a heavenly body, the arc of the horizon comprehended between the meridian of the observer and a vertical circle passing through the centre of the body.

From The New Gresham Encyclopedia. Vol. 1 Part 3 Atrebates to Bedlis by Various

Then, with hands clasping each other's feet, they became a vertical circle like the wheel of fortune, and thus went round and round.

From The Goddess of Atvatabar Being the history of the discovery of the interior world and conquest of Atvatabar by Bradshaw, William Richard

Reflection from an excess of horizontal prisms gives rise to a vertical circle passing through the sun.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 8 "Haller, Albrecht" to "Harmonium" by Various

An apparent change in the position of an object, arising from a change of the observer's station, and which diminishes with the altitude of an object in the vertical circle.

From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir