First Point of Aries

noun

1. the vernal equinox.

Example Sentences

The “sacred year” of all systems commences with this month and sign; hence the Arian heresy and the Council of Nice; which resolves itself into a descriptive personified account of a conjunction of planets about the definite fixing of the first point of Aries as a basic point in time in history, and which point is used in astronomical science to this day.

From Project Gutenberg

This will bring the denticle near the letter C, and the first point of Aries near X, which means 9 a.m.”

From Project Gutenberg

When the sun is on the equator, there is equal length of day and night over all the earth: hence the name equinoctial.—Equinoctial gales, storms which have been supposed to take place about the time of the sun's crossing the equator, that is, at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, in March and September.—Equinoctial points are the two points wherein the celestial equator and ecliptic intersect each other; the one, the first point of Aries, is called the vernal point; and the other, in Libra, the autumnal point.

From Project Gutenberg

In consequence of this the points at which the equator intersects the ecliptic, viz. the First Point of Aries and First Point of Libra, recede westwards upon the ecliptic at the rate of about 50 seconds a year.

From Project Gutenberg

From the First Point of Aries, or the place of the sun at the vernal equinox, the degrees of the ecliptic are counted from west to east.

From Project Gutenberg