The point on the celestial sphere directly above either of the earth's geographic poles, around which the stars and planets appear to rotate during the course of the night.
〔天文〕天极
Example sentencesExamples
The method proposed by Spence involved two stars on opposite sides of the celestial pole.
Lanzetta bases his conclusion on a new analysis of galaxies in the Hubble deep fields taken near the north and south celestial poles.
At first thought this does not seem too difficult a problem, even without a bright star close to the north celestial pole during the millennia of interest.
This is the phenomenon of precession, caused by the Earth's axis slowly rotating around the celestial poles.
Through the eye of a 5m-tall obelisk, the observer will see the south celestial pole, the point in the sky about which the southern stars rotate.
Definition of celestial pole in US English:
celestial pole
noun
Astronomy
The point on the celestial sphere directly above either of the earth's geographic poles, around which the stars and planets appear to rotate during the course of the night. The north celestial pole is currently within one degree of the star Polaris.
〔天文〕天极
Example sentencesExamples
Lanzetta bases his conclusion on a new analysis of galaxies in the Hubble deep fields taken near the north and south celestial poles.
Through the eye of a 5m-tall obelisk, the observer will see the south celestial pole, the point in the sky about which the southern stars rotate.
The method proposed by Spence involved two stars on opposite sides of the celestial pole.
At first thought this does not seem too difficult a problem, even without a bright star close to the north celestial pole during the millennia of interest.
This is the phenomenon of precession, caused by the Earth's axis slowly rotating around the celestial poles.