Unified Astronomy Thesaurus

Last uploaded: June 20, 2024
Preferred Name

Atmospheric refraction

Definitions

The shift in apparent direction of a celestial object caused by the bending of light while passing through the Earth's atmosphere. Since the density of the atmosphere decreases with altitude, the starlight will bend more as it continues down through the atmosphere. As a result, a star will appear higher in the sky than its true direction.

ID

http://astrothesaurus.org/uat/115

broader

http://astrothesaurus.org/uat/88

contributor

http://editor.vocabs.ands.org.au/user/AAS_Frey.Katie

definition

The shift in apparent direction of a celestial object caused by the bending of light while passing through the Earth's atmosphere. Since the density of the atmosphere decreases with altitude, the starlight will bend more as it continues down through the atmosphere. As a result, a star will appear higher in the sky than its true direction.

modified

2020-11-03T18:35:27.334Z

2020-11-03T18:35:15.617Z

prefLabel

Atmospheric refraction

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