colure

American  

[kuh-loor, koh-, koh-loor] / kəˈlʊər, koʊ-, ˈkoʊ lʊər /

noun

Astronomy.

1. either of two great circles of the celestial sphere intersecting each other at the poles, one passing through both equinoxes and the other through both solstices.

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colure British  

/ kəˈlʊə, ˈkəʊlʊə /

noun

1. either of two great circles on the celestial sphere, one of which passes through the celestial poles and the equinoxes and the other through the poles and the solstices

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Etymology

Origin of colure

1540–50; < Late Latin colūrus < Greek kólouros dock-tailed, equivalent to kól ( os ) docked + -ouros -tailed, adj. derivative of ourá tail; so called because the lower part is permanently hidden beneath the horizon

Example Sentences

Then if the Earth's pole look to E, the �quinoxes are at D, C. Let this be at the time of Metho, when the horns of Aries were in the �quinoctial colure.

From On the magnet, magnetick bodies also, and on the great magnet the earth a new physiology, demonstrated by many arguments & experiments by Gilbert, William

And as the equinoctial colure passed through the middle of Aries, when that sphere was constructed, he infers, by calculations of their retrograde motion from their place then till the year A.D.

From A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels - Volume 18 Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery, Navigation, and Commerce, from the Earliest Records to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century, By William Stevenson by Stevenson, William

Note the star μ, which serves to point out the Winter Solstice, where the solstitial colure intersects the ecliptic.

From A Field Book of the Stars by Olcott, William Tyler

Where the ecliptic crosses the solstitial colure is the spot where the sun appears to be when it is farthest north of the equator, June 21st.

From A Field Book of the Stars by Olcott, William Tyler

Before the colure of the Vernal Equinox had passed into Aries, and after it had left Aldebarán and the Hyades, the Pleiades were, for seven or eight centuries, the leading stars of the Sabæan year.

From Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry by Pike, Albert

Related Words

• ring
• sphere