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In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed... No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people. Preface to 1828 Dictionary
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EQUINOC'TIAL, a. [L. oequus, equal, and nox, night.]
EQUINOC'TIAL, n. [for equinoctial line.]
In astronomy, a great circle of the sphere, under which the equator moves in its diurnal course. This should not be confounded with the equator, as there is a difference between them; the equator being movable, and the equinoctial immovable; the equator being drawn about the convex surface of the sphere, and the equinoctial on the concave surface of the magnus orbis. These words however are often confounded. When the sun, in its course through the ecliptic, comes to this circle, it makes equal days and nights in all parts of the globe. The equinoctial then is the circle which the sun describes, or appears to describe, at the time the days and nights are of equal length, viz. about the 21st of March and 23d of September.
Equinoctial points, are the two points wherein the equator and ecliptic intersect each other; the one, being in the first point of Aries, is called the vernal point or equinox; the other, in the first point of Libra, the autumnal point or equinox.
Equinoctial dial, is that whose plane lies parallel to the equinoctial.
Pertaining to an equinox, or the equinoxes, or to the time of
equal day and night; as, the equinoctial line.
Pertaining to the regions or climate of
the equinoctial line or equator; in or near that line; as,
equinoctial heat; an equinoctial sun.
Pertaining to the time when the sun enters
the equinoctial points; as, an equinoctial gale or storm, that
is, one happening at or near the time of the equinox, in any part of
the world.
Equinoctial colure (Astron.), the meridian passing through the equinoctial points. -- Equinoctial line (Astron.), the celestial equator; -- so called because when the sun is on it, the nights and days are of equal length in all parts of the world. See Equator. Thrice the equinoctial line -- Equinoctial points (Astron.), the two points where the celestial and ecliptic intersect each other; the one being in the first point of Aries, the other in the first point of Libra. -- Equinoctial time (Astron.) reckoned in any year from the instant when the mean sun is at the mean vernal equinoctial point. The equinoctial
line.
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