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the right and oblique ascension, or the number of degrees contained between that place and the equinox that riseth with the centre of a star, and that place of the equinox that cometh to the meridian with the same star.
Solstice is in the summer when the sun is in the beginning of Cancer; and in the winter when the sun enters into Capricorn; because then the days seem to stand still, and seem neither to increase or decrease above two minutes in ten or twelve days.
Constellation is a certain number of stars supposed to be limited within some form or likeness; as Aries the Ram is said to have thirteen stars:—Taurus the Bull, thirty-three; Arcturus, Orion, and the Pleiades, mentioned in Job, ix. 9, are said to be constellatiads.
Planets are the seven cratique, or wandering stars, called Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, Sol, and Luna. These planets have also their several motions, as—
Direct, is a planet moving in its natural course, which is forward.
Retrograde, is their moving backward, contrary to their direct motion.
Combust is their being under the sun’s beams, or within eight degrees of it.
Oriental, is when a planet riseth before the a sun—Occidental, after him.
Latitude of the earth is the distance or breadth on either side of the equinox towards the pole, and they that are under the equinox have no latitude, but the poles of the world are in the horizon. This is a right sphere, and every 60 minutes directly north and south, are said to make a degree of latitude in an oblique sphere; as
