astronomicaladj.n.

1551 R. Record (title) The pathway to knowledg containing the first principles of geometrie, as they may moste aptly be applied vnto practise, bothe for vse of instrumentes geometricall, and astronomicall and also for proiection of plattes in euerye kinde.

1588 A. King tr. P. Canisius Cathechisme or Schort Instr. iij According to ye astronomicall calculation.

1642 in J. A. Atkinson Tracts relating to Civil War in Cheshire (1909) 79 Others more astronomicall, informe them, it is but a Parelius, a Comet, which would soon vanish.

1693 R. Bentley Boyle Lect. ii. 10 Aratus the Cilician..in whose Astronomical Poem this passage is now extant.

1705 I. Newton et al. Let. in I. Newton Corr. (1967) IV. 455 The Prince..has been pleased to offer to defray the charges of Printing the Astronomical Observations.

c1768 Instructions in Mariner's Mirror (1979) 65 124 Take the Altitudes with the Astronomical Quadrant instead of the Hadley's Sextants.

1818 W. Hazlitt Lect. Eng. Poets i. 19 There can never be another Jacob's dream. Since that time, the heavens have gone farther off, and grown astronomical.

1859 Harper's Mag. Feb. 329/2 The precise geographical position of all important points was to be ascertained by astronomical observations.

1905 W. Hampson Radium Explained 51 Do single astronomical bodies, such as the satellites or developed planets, ever disintegrate?

1969 Jrnl. Inst. Navigation 22 415 The practice of astronomical navigation at sea.

2010 New Scientist 27 Feb. 46/1 We have made significant astronomical discoveries pertinent to the question of alien life.

1871 J. Macdonell Surv. Polit. Econ. xi. 152 The bankers balance their liabilities, amounting to figures of astronomical magnitude, without the aid of coins or notes.

1899 Daily News 7 Oct. 8/2 They discovered that they omitted one credit line of thirty thousand pounds. Such familiarity with astronomical finance made Mr. Rylands somewhat irritable.

1934 G. B. Shaw Too True to be Good Pref. 7 The odds against a poor person becoming a millionaire are of astronomical magnitude.

1953 E. Hyams Gentian Violet i. 9 The value of stage, film, broadcasting and other rights was astronomical.

2009 New Yorker 10 Aug. 44/1 With such astronomical numbers, Siberian mosquitoes have learned to diversify.

1719 J. Harris Astron. Dialogues 167 If a Weight or a Spring, as in a Clock, were applied to the Axis of the Movement, so as to make it move round once in just 24 Hours..; and this would then be a true Celestial or Astronomical Clock.

1771 D. Hume Let. 25 Mar. (1932) II. 240 Mr Fraser is as regular as an astronomical Clock, and will never disappoint you.

1856 D. Lardner Handbk. Astron. I. vi. 136 The rate of the astronomical clock is so regulated that [etc.].

2006 Hi Life Issue 5. 45/1 With the company's modular MB1 system, curtains can be opened or closed, lights can be turned on or off all under the control of an astronomical clock to keep it in step with local daylight hours.

1641 G. Walker Hist. Creation ix. 139 The space of the Sun, Moone, and Starres, compassing the earth, which is the space of 24. houres;..that day consists of an evening and a morning, and comprehends in it one night; and some call it a naturall, and some a civill, and some an astronomicall day.

1675 E. Sherburne in tr. M. Manilius Sphere 147 The beginning likewise of the Astronomical Day is computed from the Meridian Circle.

1738 Bayle's Hist. & Crit. Dict. (ed. 2) V. 777 The true Natural Day in its most proper signification, is the time betwixt the sun's quitting the Meridian to his returning to it. It is by this the Astronomical Day is measured.

1800 J. Gale Gale's Cabinet of Knowl. (ed. 3) 37 Our present political day begins at midnight, yet some compute the vernal equinox from the astronomical day, beginning 12 hours later.

1884 Nature 6 Nov. 10/2 The Astronomer-Royal proposes to adopt the recommendation of the Washington Conference by commencing on January 1 of next year to count the astronomical day from the midnight preceding the nominal civil date.

1925 Times 23 July 8/5 Some discussion took place on the use of the initials G.M.T., or Greenwich Mean Time, arising out of the change in the astronomical day, which formerly began at noon.

1970 Jrnl. Brit. Astron. Assoc. 80 210 The nautical day fell into disuse in the 19th century, but the astronomical day continued to be used until 1924.

2006 P. K. Seidelmann & G. A. Wilkins in P. K. Seidelmann Explanatory Suppl. Astron. Almanac (rev. ed.) i. 8 The integral values of the Julian date refer to the instants of Greenwich mean noon (since the system was introduced when the astronomical day began at noon rather than at midnight).

1765 T. H. Croker et al. Compl. Dict. Arts & Sci. II. at Horizon Rational, True, or Astronomical Horizon, called generally the horizon, is a great circle.

1860 Jrnl. Royal Asiatic Soc. 17 325 The Ufk is the true or astronomical horizon, which separates the upper from the lower hemisphere.

1896 H. A. Howe Study of Sky xii. 218 The air..bends rays of light which pass through it. On this account we see the sun after it is really below the astronomical horizon.

2007 M. G. Firneis in D. R. Evans tr. G. Vörös Egyptian Temple Archit. 167 It is this glare along with atmospheric extinction which, depending on the star's magnitude, prohibits its visibility down to the astronomical horizon.

1723 E. Stone tr. N. Bion Constr. & Principal Uses Math. Instruments vi. iii. 167 A plain thin Piece of Glass, having Lines drawn thereon with a very fine Point of a Diamond, may likewise by used in an Astronomical Telescope, &c.

1882 Encycl. Brit. XIV. 594/2 We can now understand the working of the ordinary astronomical telescope... The object glass furnishes an inverted but real image of a distant body, within our reach.

1972 Jrnl. Brit. Astron. Assoc. 82 81 (advt.) Zerodur is ideally suited for use in high resolution astronomical telescopes due to exceptional properties inherent to this high-performance material.

2001 G. Cole in P. Moore 2002 Yearbk. Astron. ii. 193 Our worldview was transformed following the inauguration of the 100-inch astronomical telescope on Mount Wilson.

1840 E. C. Frome Outl. Method Trigonometr. Surv. x. 136 In the triangle PZS, named from its universal application the astronomical triangle—P is the elevated pole, Z the zenith, and S the star or object observed.

1917 A. H. Holt Man. Field Astron. ii. 11 Each part of the astronomical triangle, with the exception of the angle of the star, may be expressed in terms of the observer's position on the earth's surface (latitude) or the co-ordinates of the star.

1995 L. Motz & J. A. Weaver Story of Astron. ix. 131 The final use of the observatory data and the navigator's data to determine the position of the ship requires the solution of what is known as the ‘navigational’ or ‘astronomical triangle’, the three vertices of which represent, respectively, the position of the ship, the geographical position of the stars (or sun) and the earth's north or south pole.

1848 Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 56 36 Farther from one another than the astronomical unit are, Iris and Pallas, Flora and Pallas, in their descending nodes.

1910 Outlook 16 July 568 We find Mercury about .4 of an astronomical unit (A. U.) from the sun.

1970 J. Blish Spock must Die! x. 76 He is a considerable distance away from the Enterprise—a minimum of two astronomical units, certainly.

2000 Sciences May 45/3 Astronomers could only guess the true radius of the earth's orbit, a value known as the astronomical unit.

1583 R. Harvey Astrological Disc. sig. B.i^v These two superior planets Saturne and Iupiter shall the second time also be very nigh the one y^e other, y^e 26. day of October, this present yeare 1583. being then almost conioyned againe togither in Pisces, but both retrograde, & not long before, at the beginning of the second Reuolution, and third part of the Astronomical yeare.

1680 T. Smith Acct. Greek Church 31 They make use of the old Paschal Cycle, and limits of it, as they were establisht by the Fathers of the first general Council at Nice; who taking no notice of the inequality and difference of the true Astronomical year from the Civil, then and still in use, which admits not of the nice calculation of the supernumerary minutes, made no provision for the praecession of the Aequinoxes.

1807 T. Young Course Lect. Nat. Philos. I. xlv. 541 The astronomical year begins at noon on the 31st of December, and the date of an observation expresses the days and hours actually elapsed from that time.

1924 Pop. Sci. Monthly Sept. 56/1 For centuries efforts have been made to improve the calendar so that it would coincide with the astronomical year.

2006 R. Beck Relig. Mithras Cult x. 254 Sirius, the Dog-star, is the brightest star in the heavens, and its heliacal or morning rising was eagerly anticipated as one of the most significant markers in the seasonal and astronomical year.