equinoctial time

Time reckoned from a fixed instant common to all the world. e-qui-noc-tial-lý (tial as shal), *e-qui-noctal-ly, adv. [English equinoctial; -ly.] In the of the equinoctial. IMG:content-1101.png:[blocks in formation] II. Astron., .: The moment at which the sun, in pa ing the equator, renders the days and nights equal in length through the world, except in as far as this equality is modified by the effect of refrac tion at the apparent time of the luminary's rising and setting. There are two equinoxes, the vernal, on or about March 20, when the sun seems to cro the equator going northward, and the autumnal, on or about September 23, when he recro es it toward the south. At the former date he is at the first point of Aries, at the latter at the first of Libra. "But, before the equinox , disease began to make fearful havoc in the little community." -Macaulay: Hist . Eng ., ch. xxiv. Prece ion of the Equinoxes : [PRECESSION.] equipment