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PLACE

Volume 14 · 218 words · 1797 Edition

locus, in philosophy, a mode of space, or that part of immovable space which any body possesses. See Metaphysics, p. 185.

PLACE, in astronomy. The place of the sun, a star, &c. denotes the sign and degree of the zodiac which the luminary is in; or the degree of the ecliptic, reckoning from the beginning of Aries, which the planet or star's circle of longitude cuts; and therefore coincides with the longitude of the sun, planet, or star. As the fine of the sun's greatest declination 23° 30' : to the fine of any present declination given or observed, for instance, 23° 15' :: so is the radius 10 : to the fine of his longitude 81° 52' ; which, if the declination were north, would give 26° 52' of Gemini; if south, 20° 52' of Capricorn, for the sun's place. See Declination, &c.

The place of the moon being that part of her orbit wherein she is found at any time, is of various kinds, by reason of the great inequalities of the lunar motions, which render a number of equations and reductions necessary before the just point is found. The moon's fictitious place is her place once equated; her place nearly true, is her place twice equated; and her true place thrice equated. See Astronomy, passim.