Back Kulminasie Afrikaans تكبد (علم الفلك) Arabic Кульмінацыя (астраномія) Byelorussian Кулминация (астрономия) Bulgarian Kulminace Czech Kulmination Danish Kulmination (Astronomie) German Μεσημβρινή διάβαση Greek Culminación Spanish Kulminatsioon (astronoomia) Estonian
In observational astronomy, culmination is the passage of a celestial object (such as the Sun, the Moon, a planet, a star, constellation or a deep-sky object) across the observer's local meridian.[1] These events were also known as meridian transits, used in timekeeping and navigation, and measured precisely using a transit telescope.
During each day, every celestial object appears to move along a circular path on the celestial sphere due to the Earth's rotation creating two moments when it crosses the meridian.[2][3] Except at the geographic poles, any celestial object passing through the meridian has an upper culmination, when it reaches its highest point (the moment when it is nearest to the Zenith), and nearly twelve hours later, is followed by a lower culmination, when it reaches its lowest point (nearest to the Nadir). The time of culmination (when the object culminates) is often used to mean upper culmination.[2][3][4]
An object's altitude (A) in degrees at its upper culmination is equal to 90 minus the observer's latitude (L) plus the object's declination (δ):
- A = 90° − L + δ.
- ^ Michael Hoskin (18 March 1999). The Cambridge Concise History of Astronomy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-57600-0.
- ^ a b Bakich, Michael E. (1995). The Cambridge Guide to the Constellations. Cambridge University Press. p. 8. ISBN 0521449219.
- ^ a b Daintith, John; Gould, William (2009). "Culmination". The Facts on File Dictionary of Astronomy. Infobase Publishing. p. 110. ISBN 978-1438109329.
- ^ Mackenzie, William (1879–81). "Meridian". The National Encyclopaedia. Vol. 8 (library ed.). London, Edinburgh, and Glasgow: Ludgate Hill, E.C. p. 993.
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