moon culminating (monkul"minating)

In astron., pa ing the meridian at nearly the same time and on nearly the same parallel of declination as the moon.-Moon-culminating stars, stars which culminate at about the same time and nearly on the same parallel of declination as the moon. They are the stars of which the places are given in the Nautical Almanac (generally four in number for each day) for the days on which the moon can be observed, for use in long i tude determinations. moon-culminations (mön'kul-mi-nā"shonz), n. pl. In astron., a method of determining the longitude of a place by observing with a transit-instrument the times at which the limb of the moon and certain stars in the same part of the sky culminate, or cro the meridian. The fundamental principle is e entially the same as that involved in the nautical method of "lunar distances." Among the stars the moon's position is utilized to make known the Green wich time - but the transit ob servations are more easy and accurate than those made with a sextant, and the reductions are more simple. The method has been entirely superseded by the telegraphic method wherever circumstances render the latter practicable.