NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Lunar Distance in Wikipedia
From: Frank Reed CT
Date: 2007 Jul 24, 23:43 -0700
From: Frank Reed CT
Date: 2007 Jul 24, 23:43 -0700
Fred you wrote: > Another meaning for zenith given by the Oxford English Dictionary > (http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/zenith?view=uk) is "the highest > point in the sky reached by a given celestial object." This is an > additional meaning to the point directly overhead. However, both the > Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica mention only the point directly > overhead. It would appear the scientific usage is restricted to the > point directly overhead. Just remember that the OED also includes 'incorrect' usages since, by their standards, usage is king, and therefore there's almost no such thing as incorrect usage (apart from pure typographic errors). So, for example, "irregardless" is in the OED despite the fact that no one with any pride in their usage of English would be caught dead using it. For scientific terminology, there's clearly correct usage and incorrect usage. For the modern scientific use of the word, zenith, it's the point straight up, the single point 90 degrees away from the astronomical horizon. And by the way, that's the only way it's defined in the back of the modern Bowditch. Of course, "zenith" also has a metaphoric meaning in non-scientific usage: something is "at its zenith" when it has peaked in some sense, so you might read about the "Roman Empire at its zenith" or perhaps an "actor's career at its zenith". When that metaphoric usage is turned back and applied to the original astronomical case, then we see this odd idea of the "Sun at its zenith" when trying to say that it has reached its maximum altitude. No one trying to communicate navigational or astronomical concepts should use zenith that way. The zenith is straight up. That's all. -FER --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---