It's the Most Word-ful Time of the Year!: Celestial Words To Mark The Winter Solstice, December 21

The shortest day of the year, December 21, gives us an occasion to learn some vocabulary associated with the night sky: the Earth, the stars, and darkness.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. aurora
    bands of light caused by charged solar particles
    It’s here where charged particles streaming from the Sun interact with particles in our atmosphere, charging them up and creating strange phenomena such as the aurora and geomagnetic storms. The Verge (Oct 9, 2019)
    In the far north, night skies are often decorated with shimmering bands and curtains of color: the aurora borealis.
  2. celestial
    relating to or inhabiting a divine heaven
    Jupiter continues to be a source of fascination for astronomers, with NASA's Juno probe continuously orbiting the celestial giant since 2016. Fox News (Nov 26, 2019)
  3. constellation
    a configuration of stars as seen from the earth
    The constellations glittered in the black sky, a star streaking across it like a shimmering loose thread. When the Sea Turned to Silver
    Do you see the word stella in the middle of constellation? That's Latin for "star." Winter is an excellent time for stargazing, since cold air tends to be dry and clear. Ancient people navigated and marked the seasons with the movements of stars. How many constellations can you name?
  4. crepuscular
    like or relating to twilight; dim
    Here are 10 books to shed some light into such crepuscular operations. The Guardian (Sep 4, 2019)
    "Evening" is a nice enough word, but "twilight" is more descriptive. To say that something is crepuscular, from the Latin crepusculum, is an even more interesting way to describe the beginning of night.
  5. dusk
    the time of day immediately following sunset
    We trudged up the hill to the summit in the enveloping dusk. A Walk in the Woods
    Dusk is another useful word for the time after the sun goes down but before nightfall.
  6. equinox
    when the sun crosses the plane of the earth's equator
    Co-opted by the Catholic Church as “All Hallows’ Day” or “All Saints’ Day,” Samhain lands midway between the fall equinox and the winter solstice, celebrated on the evening of Oct. Seattle Times (Oct 23, 2019)
    While summer and winter begin on solstices, spring and fall start on equinoxes. Equinox literally means "equal night;" these two days mark the periods exactly between the solstices, where day and night are equal length.
  7. hemisphere
    half of a round, three-dimensional shape
    Oxygen rose during each northern hemisphere spring and then fell in the autumn. BBC (Nov 14, 2019)
    Because the Earth's axis is tilted at 23 degrees relative to the ecliptic, its orbital plane, whichever hemisphere is tilted away from the sun experiences winter since the sun appears much lower in the sky and warms the planet's surface less than in summer.
  8. hibernal
    characteristic of or relating to winter
    The winter, or hibernal, solstice — which is actually only a single moment in time astronomically — is celebrated in various ways throughout the world but often includes an observation at sunrise or sunset. Seattle Times (Dec 20, 2016)
    Hibernal is the opposite of estival, meaning "summery." It comes from the Latin hibernus, also meaning "wintery," the same root where hibernate comes from.
  9. nadir
    the point below the observer directly opposite the zenith
    For the last five months, the Washington Nationals, baseball’s greatest underachievers at their nadir in late May, thrived when left for dead. Los Angeles Times (Oct 31, 2019)
    On the winter solstice, the noonday sun reaches its lowest point of the year, its nadir.
  10. nocturnal
    belonging to or active during the night
    “We’re saying, look, light pollution is also a huge driver, especially with nocturnal insects.” Fox News (Nov 22, 2019)
    See that noc there at the beginning of nocturnal? That's the same Latin root that gives us equinox.
  11. solstice
    when the sun is at its greatest distance from the equator
    There was only six hours of daylight now, the pink low-horizon solstice light barely creeping over the high mountain walls. Washington Times (Oct 19, 2019)
    solstice comes from the Latin sol, "sun," and sistere, "to stand still." The summer and winter solstices are the days where the sun reaches its highest and lowest points respectively.
  12. zenith
    the highest point of something
    It reached what they were certain must be the zenith of its curve, and then, defying all reason, it continued to rise into the air. Stardust
    The zenith is the opposite of nadir, so on the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere, it's the first day of summer down south: the longest day, with the sun reaching its highest point at noon.
  13. zodiac
    a circular diagram representing the 12 constellations
    The course began with the meanings of the zodiac, from Aries to Aquarius. The Guardian (Nov 7, 2019)
Created on Mon Nov 25 21:30:58 EST 2019 (updated Thu Nov 28 21:01:54 EST 2019)

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