Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Heliacal"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Heliacal \He*li"a*cal\, a. [Gr. ? belonging to the sun, fr. ?
the sun: cf. F. h['e]liaque.] (Astron.)
Emerging from the light of the sun, or passing into it;
rising or setting at the same, or nearly the same, time as
the sun. --Sir T. Browne.
Note: The heliacal rising of a star is when, after being in
conjunction with the sun, and invisible, it emerges
from the light so as to be visible in the morning
before sunrising. On the contrary, the heliacal setting
of a star is when the sun approaches conjunction so
near as to render the star invisible.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
heliacal
adj : pertaining to or near the sun; especially the first rising
of a star after and last setting before its
invisibility owing to its conjunction with the sun;
"the heliacal rising of the Dog Star"; "the heliacal or
Sothic year is determined by the heliacal rising of
Sothis (the Egyptian name for the Dog Star) [syn: {heliac}]
Additional Hypertext Webster Gateway Lookup
Gateway by dict@stokkie.net
stock only wrote the gateway and does not have any control over the contents;
see the Webster Gateway FAQ,
and also the Back-end/database links and credits.