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cloud

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Approximate heights of some types of clouds cloud, aggregation of minute particles of water or ice suspended in the air. Cloudiness (or proportion of the sky covered by any form of cloud),...

nebula

(Encyclopedia)nebula nĕbˈyo͝olə [key] [Lat.,=mist], in astronomy, observed manifestation of a collection of highly rarefied gas and dust in interstellar space. Prior to the 1960s this term was also applied to b...

planetarium

(Encyclopedia)planetarium, optical device used to project a representation of the heavens onto a domed ceiling; the term also designates the building that houses such a device. A modern planetarium consists of as m...

Davis, Richard Harding

(Encyclopedia)Davis, Richard Harding, 1864–1916, American author and journalist, b. Philadelphia; son of Rebecca Harding Davis. After attending Lehigh and Johns Hopkins universities, he became a reporter in Phila...

horse latitudes

(Encyclopedia)horse latitudes, two belts of latitude where winds are light and the weather is hot and dry. They are located mostly over the oceans, at about 30° lat. in each hemisphere, and have a north-south rang...

Mitchell, Maria

(Encyclopedia)Mitchell, Maria, 1818–89, American astronomer and educator, b. Nantucket, Mass. Mitchell taught school in Nantucket, and later became a librarian. On Oct. 1, 1847, Mitchell discovered a comet (1847 ...

Layton, Irving

(Encyclopedia)Layton, Irving, 1912–2006, Canadian poet, b. Romania as Israel Lazarovitch. His family emigrated to Montreal when he was an infant. He attended Macdonald College (B.Sc., 1939) and McGill Univ. (M.A....

Libra

(Encyclopedia)Libra lēˈbrə, līˈ– [key] [Lat.,=the scales], southern constellation lying on the ecliptic (the sun's apparent path through the heavens) between Virgo and Scorpius; it is one of the constellatio...

Aries

(Encyclopedia)Aries ârˈēz [key] [Lat.,=the ram], constellation lying on the ecliptic (the sun's apparent path through the heavens) between Taurus and Pisces; it is one of the constellations of the zodiac. It con...

Virgo

(Encyclopedia)Virgo vûrˈgō [key] [Lat.,=the virgin], constellation lying on the ecliptic (the sun's apparent path through the heavens) between Libra and Leo, and SW of Boötes; it is one of the constellations of...