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An astronomical instrument is a device for observing, measuring, or recording astronomical data. [ citation needed ] They are used in the scientific field of astronomy , a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos, with the object of explaining their origin and evolution over time.
Actual sunset: Two minutes before the Sun disappears below the horizon. Sunset (or sundown) is the disappearance of the Sun at the end of the Sun path, below the horizon of the Earth (or any other astronomical object in the Solar System) due to its rotation.
This glossary of astronomy is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to astronomy and cosmology, their sub-disciplines, and related fields. Astronomy is concerned with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth. The field of astronomy features an extensive vocabulary and a ...
Book III describes his work on the precession of the equinoxes and treats the apparent movements of the Sun and related phenomena. Book IV is a similar description of the Moon and its orbital movements. Book V explains how to calculate the positions of the wandering stars based on the heliocentric model and gives tables for the five planets.
Also actiniform. Describing a collection of low-lying, radially structured clouds with distinct shapes (resembling leaves or wheels in satellite imagery), and typically organized in extensive mesoscale fields over marine environments. They are closely related to and sometimes considered a variant of stratocumulus clouds. actinometer A scientific instrument used to measure the heating power of ...
The history of astronomy focuses on the contributions civilizations have made to further their understanding of the universe beyond earth's atmosphere. [1] Astronomy is one of the oldest natural sciences , achieving a high level of success in the second half of the first millennium.
Burt's solar compass or astronomical compass/sun compass is a surveying instrument that makes use of the Sun's direction instead of magnetism. William Austin Burt invented his solar compass in 1835. The solar compass works on the principle that the direction to the Sun at a specified time can be calculated if the position of the observer on the ...
Numerical analysis is a branch of mathematics, pioneered by celestial mechanicians, for calculating approximate numerical answers (such as the position of a planet in the sky) which are too difficult to solve down to a general, exact formula.