altazimuth coordinate system

A celestial coordinate system in which an object's position in the sky is described in terms of its altitude and azimuth. Because the altazimuth coordinate system is based on an observer's position rather than on features fixed on the celestial sphere, it is often the most practical system for use in navigation and surveying.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

References in periodicals archive

This edition has a new chapter on exoplanets; new coverage of the altazimuth coordinate system; revised coverage of planet classification; expanded coverage of the satellites of the planets; and scientific updates related to physics and astronomy, including the discovery of the Higgs boson, indications of water activity on Mars, observations of fragmentation of an asteroid and rings around another one, the meeting of the Rosetta spacecraft with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the discovery of new exoplanets, the sunspot cycle, the improved parallax measurements by Gaia and the Hubble Space Telescope, and new properties of the solar wind.

Discovering the Essential Universe, 6th Edition

The horizontal sky lines that divide up our zones, incidentally, are called almucantars, an old Arabic term for the altitude circles of the altazimuth coordinate system.

Levels of the heavens

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