astronomer, astronomere, astronomyer

[Eng. astronom(y); suffix -er. In Sw. astronom, Fr. astronome; Sp., Port., & Ital. astronomo; Lat. astronomus; Gr. ἀστρονόμος ( astronomos ), as adj. cla ing the stars, as substan. an astronomer; ἄστρον (astron) a star, ἄστρα ( astra ) (pl) = stars, and νέμω (nemo) = to distribute,. pasture (a flock). Hence an astronomer is a cla ifier of the stars, or, according to Herschel, a "shepherd of the stars."] [ASTRONOMY.] to E ential signification: One who studies the stars, the word giving no indication as to his motive in so doing. During ancient and med iæval times the keenest spur to the exploration of the heavens was furnished by the belief, then all but universally entertained, that the stars influenced human destinies; hence astronomer signified *1. Originally: In the main an astrologer; one who studied the stars, partly, no doubt, from scientific curiosity, but chiefly because he believed they influenced human destinies. "If astronomers say true, every man at his birth by his constellation hath divers things and desires appointed him."- Pilkington : Exposition upon the Pro phet Aggeus, ch. 1. (See Trench : Select Glo ary, p. 12.) "But what was ominous, that very morn The sun was entered into Capricorn, Which, by this bad astronomer's account, That week the Virgin Balance should remount." Dryden: Hind and Panther . 2. Subsequently : As study of the heavens advanced, the more gifted minds discovered the fallacy of the old notion that the stars influenced human destinies, whilst the le talented firmly adhered to the popular delusion on the subject. It consequently became needful to distinguish the two cla es of men. The word astronomer was therefore reserved for any really scientific student of the stars, whilst the term astrologer was abandoned to the credulous, if not even insincere, star-gazer. Convenience dictated this arrangement: if etymology were followed, an astrologer would be regarded as the equal, if not the superior, of an astronomer. [ASTROLOGER.] "It [Encke's comet] was predicted and generally observed in 1825, and so anxious were astronomers to discover it, that two new comets were found in look ing for it."-Airy: Report on Astronomy. Brit . A oc. Rep., vol. 1, 2nd ed. (1832), p. 163. Astronomer Royal: The appellation given to the eminent astronomer entrusted by the 350 British Government with the care of the Green wich Observatory, and who is expected to turn to the best account the splendid instruments erected there for the survey of the heavens. There are also Astronomers Royal for Scotland and Ireland. ǎs-tro-năm-ic, * as-tro-nom'-ick, astro-năm-ic-al, a . [In Fr. astronomique; Sp., Port., & Ital. astronomico; Lat. astronomic us; all from Gr. ἀστρονομικός ( astro nomikos).] Pertaining or relating to astronomy, or to the methods in use among astronomers. "Can he not pa an astronomick line?"- Black . "The starry heavens, as you know, had for Immanuel Kant a value beyond their astronomical one.' -Tyndall: Frag. of Science, 3rd ed., v. 104. astronomical instruments. Instruments used for observing the heavenly bodies. The following list includes some which are now superseded, but the great majority are still in use:- Armil, armillary sphere, artificial horizon, astrolabe, astrometer, astroscope, azimuth circle, azimuth dial, back-staff, chronometer, clock, collimator, comet-seeker, compa , cosmolabe, dipleidoscope, dip sector, equatorial telescope, gnomon, heliometer, meridian circle, micrometer, mural circle, orbit-sweeper, orrery, pendulum, planetarium, quadrant, reflecting circle, refraction circle, sextant, spectroscope, telescope, tellurian, transit instrument, zenith sector, zenith tube. astronomical measurements. The measurement of the arc of the heavens intercepted between two points, as between a star at a certain moment and the horizon. Or a measurement of the exact time of some event, say a transit. This is done by means of a clock, or, more generally, a chronometer. (Herschel: Astron ., § 150.) astronomical observations, Observations of the heavenly bodies made to further the science of astronomy. ( Ibid . , § 136.) astronomical year. A year, the precise length of which is determined by astronomical observations. It embraces both the tropical and the sidereal years. It is opposed to the civil year, being that which each nation has adopted for itself. [YEAR] "Niebuhr thinks that the allusion is to a solar eclipse, visible in the Mediterranean, which occurred on the 21st of June, in the astronomical year 399 B.C." -Lewis: Early Rom. Hist . , ch. v., § 11. as-tro-năm-i-cal-ly, adv . [Eng. astronomical; -ly.] In an astronomical manner; after the manner of astronomers; in conformity with the principles or methods of astronomy.