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Meridian

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Meridian astronomy
What is meridian astronomy?
We can all remember having geography lessons and learning about latitude and longitude (even though most of us have forgotten which is which!).

 


Meridian Circle
Related Category: Astronomy: General
see transit instrument.
More on Meridian Circle
Transit Instrument - or transit, telescope devised to observe stars as they cross the meridian and used for determining time.

Meridian (astronomy)
This article is about the astronomical concept. For other uses of the word, see Meridian.

Meridian Brothers...........
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Prime Meridian
The zero point for longitude on the , defined as the longitude of the Greenwich Royal Observatory in England.
, ...

Meridian Hill Park, also known unofficially as Malcolm X Park, is located in the Washington, D.C. neighborhood of Columbia Heights, Washington, D.C....
in Washington, D.C., but the plan was rejected by Congress.

Meridian, celestial:
The great circle passing through the north and the south points of the horizon and the observer's zenith.

Meridian always goes through due North, zenith, and due South points.
Altitude of zenith = 90° (straight overhead) always.
Altitude of celestial pole = observer's latitude.

Meridiani Planum in Color
This color image shows the martian landscape at Meridiani Planum, where the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity successfully landed at 9:05 p.m. PST on Saturday.

meridian
an imaginary circle on the celestial sphere that connects the zenith to the north (or south) celestial
Messier objects ...

MERIDIAN
The meridian is an imaginary north-south line in the sky that passes through the observer's zenith.

Meridian
An imaginary north/south line passing through the zenith.
Newtonian
See reflector.

Meridian
An imaginary circle drawn through the North and South poles of the celestial equator.
Metal
A term used by astronomers to describe all elements except hydrogen and helium.

Meridians -- Great circles that pass through both the north and south poles, also called lines of longitude.

meridian
The imaginary line that runs from the horizon to the zenith while looking directly south. When an object in on the meridian, it is at its highest point in its path across the sky.

Meridian
(a) Theoretical north-south line on the Earth's surface, or an extension of that line onto the night sky, connecting the observer's zenith with the celestial pole and the horizon. The meridian is used to state directional bearings.

Meridian. The imaginary line that passes from north to south horizons via the zenith.

Meridian - The great circle passing through an observer's zenith and the north and south celestial poles
Mesopause - The upper boundary of the mesosphere layer of the atmosphere of a planet ...

prime meridian
hour circle through 1,
Greenwich celestial meridian,
local celestial meridian ...

Every meridian must cross the equator. Since the equator is a circle, we can divide it--like any circle--into 360 degrees, and the longitude φ of a point is then the marked value of that division where its meridian meets the equator.

Alfecca Meridiana = Alpha Coronae Australis
Beta CrA = Beta Coronae Australis
Eps CrA = Epsilon Coronae Australis
Corona Borealis ...

Os Piscis Meridiani; Os Piscis Notii; Difda al Auwel, the "First Frog".
Alpha Piscis Austrini
HR 8728
HD 216956 ...

Greenwich meridian - The meridian of longitude passing through the site of the old Royal Greenwich Observatory, near London; origin point from which longitude is measured on the earth.

Auroral Meridian.-It is a common belief that the summit of an auroral arc is to be looked for in the observer's magnetic meridian. On any theory it would be rather extraordinary if this were invariably true.

A fictitious meridian that rotates independently of the Earth at the uniform rate implicitly defined by Terrestrial Dynamical Time (TDT). The ephemeris meridian is 1.002738T east of the Greenwich meridian, where T = TDT-UT1. [S92] Ephemeris Second ...

Though the prime meridian always divides the Moon down the middle, regardless of the phase, there's nothing like a quarter Moon to illuminate the two hemispheres.

Mars has a prime meridian, defined as passing through the small crater Airy-0. In the future, perhaps Mars could have time zones defined at regular intervals from the prime meridian, as on Earth.

The International Meridian Conference finally settled matters in 1884 when 25 delegations (one of them was from then independent Hawaii) voted to divide the world into 24 time zones.

planetographic Referring to positions on a planet measured in latitude from the planet's equator and in longitude from a reference meridian. planetoid = asteroid. See planet.

CENTRAL MERIDIAN PASSAGE (CMP). The passage of an ACTIVE REGION or other feature across the longitude meridian that passes through the apparent center of the solar DISK. CHROMOSPHERE.

Astronomers use this time keeping method when they are making observations, because the current sidereal time equals the right ascension coordinate that is crossing the meridian at that moment.

central meridian
Cepheid variable
Cepheus (constellation)
Ceres (minor planet 1)
Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory
Cetus (constellation)
CH Cygni
CH star
Chamberlin-Moulton planetesimal hypothesis
Chameleon (constellation) ...

We've narrowed the location down to its line of longitude, or meridian, we now need to find the approximate line of latitude at which the event will occur so we can then home in on our site.

Alfecca Meridiana Alpha Coronae Australis
Alfirk Beta Cephei
Algedi Alpha Capricorni
Al Giedi Alpha Capricorni
Algenib Alpha Persei
Algieba Gamma Leonis
Algol Beta Persei
Algorab Delta Corvi
Alhajoth Alpha Aurigae
Alhena Gamma Geminorum ...

A nautical mile is defined as 1852 meters, but is also (not accidentally) one minute of angle along a meridian on the Earth. Sextants can be read accurately to within 0.2 arcminutes.

Longitude starts at 0 degrees at the Prime Meridian and goes to 180 degree East or 180 degrees West. Since the Earth is a sphere, 180 E is equal to 180 W.

Airy installed a transit (a precise surveying device) at Greenwich, England, which was used to define the zero degree meridian of the Earth (zero-degrees longitude).

The telescope would be mounted between massive walls, each 70 feet long and 50 feet high, so that it could be turned only toward that part of the sky which lay near the meridian-that is to say, the north-south line.

The other coordinate is called right ascension, and it is measured eastward from a somewhat arbitrary "prime meridian" on the sky. The "prime meridian" passes through the position of the Sun at the time of the vernal equinox.

Deral and Jadzia "managing" on Meridian in 2371
When the Defiant discovered Meridian, a planet that faded in and out of existence periodically, Jadzia had a brief romantic relationship with Deral, an inhabitant of Meridian.

The Sun's meridional flow - the flow of material along meridian lines from the equator toward the poles at the surface and from the poles to the equator deep inside - must also play an important role in the Sun's magnetic dynamo.

That assumption is that the constellation in question is straddling the meridian, that is, is due south of the viewer. In practice this is not always the case, but it is a convenient convention.

the crossing of a celestial body over the meridian
2. the crossing of a celestial body in front of another
U
umbra the total part of a shadow Universal Time (UT) local time on the Greenwich meridian
Z ...

It is measured by the interval between two successive transits of a celestial body over the same meridian, and takes a specific name from that of the body.

To make a spherical coordinate system work, we also need to define a line of zero latitude and zero longitude (like the Earth's equator and meridian) as seen from a central location.

The globe, 26 inches (65 centimeters) in diameter, shows 41 Greek constellation figures in raised relief, plus lines marking the celestial equator, the meridians of the solstices and equinoxes, and the ecliptic and tropics — but no stars.

In the late 10th century, a huge observatory was built near Tehran, Iran, by the astronomer al-Khujandi who observed a series of meridian transits of the Sun, which allowed him to calculate the obliquity of the ecliptic, ...

It was an advantage to take the plates as near to the meridian as possible. If not, the duplicate plate had to be taken at nearly the same hour angle-- because of the differential refractive index of the atmosphere.

A solar day is the amount of time that passes between two subsequent times when the Sun reaches its highest position above the horizon (passing through the meridian).

Solar Coordinates. Central Meridian Distance (CMD). The angular distance in solar longitude measured from the central meridian.
Solar Cycle. The approximately 11-year quasi-periodic variation in frequency or number of solar active events.

3) Locate a star near the meridian about 3 hours away (either East or West) in RA and goto (use goto feature) to it.
4) Center star by using the AZIMUTH adjustment for DECLINATION. Use slewing controls for the RIGHT ACENSION. SYNC star.

On March 2, 2004, NASA announced that the rover Opportunity's investigation of rocks on a broad plain called Meridiani Planum has produced "convincing and precise evidence" that the region was once soaked with water (images and press release).

The alternative Latin names for the star, Os Piscis Meridiani or Os Piscis Notii mean "The Mouth of the Southern Fish."
The name Difda al Auwel or Al Difdi` al Awwal is "The First Frog." The Second Frog is Diphda, Beta Ceti.
Description of the Star ...

Y=Intersection between geographic equator and the geographic meridian 90 degrees east of the meridian containing the dipole axis
Z=Dipole axis
Heliocentric systems
Heliocentric Aries ecliptic ...

UT (Universal Time) The local time at the 0 meridian passing through Greenwich, England; it is t he same everywhere. Same as GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).
V
Vacuum A space absent of matter or nearly so.

It entails pointing the telescope at a star near the intersection of the celestial equator and the meridian (if a telescope is equatorially mounted then the star just has to be close to the celestial equator) and timing with a stopwatch how long it ...

Longitude: The angular distance East or West, between the meridian of a particular place on Earth and that of Greenwich, England, expressed in degrees or time.
Long-period: In astronomy, a comet with an orbital period greater than 200 years.

Constellations - Corona Australis - alp CrA (Alfecca Meridiana)
Identification Data
Common Name ...

The synodic rotation period of the earth with respect to the sun; that is, the length of time from one local noon, when the sun is on the meridian, to the next local noon.
solar flare - (n.) ...

The best time of year to view it is around January 1, when it reaches the meridian at midnight. Under the right conditions, Sirius can be observed in daylight with the naked eye.

See also: Earth, Time, Sun, Solar, Planet