AZIMUTH, in astronomy.—The azimuth of the sun, or a star, is an arch of the horizon; comprehended between the meridian of the place, and any given vertical. See MERIDIAN and VERTICAL. The azimuth is the complement of the eastern and western amplitude to a quadrant. See AMPLITUDE. The azimuth is found by this proportion; as radius is to the tangent of the latitude, so is the tangent of the sun’s altitude to the cosine of the azimuth from the south, at the time of the equinox. To find the azimuth by the globe, see GLOBE. The word is pure Arabic, where it signifies the same thing.
Magnetical Azimuth, is an arch of the horizon contained between the sun’s azimuth-circle, and the magnetical meridian; or it is the apparent distance of the sun from the north or south point of the compass. See MAGNETICAL. It is found, by observing the sun with an azimuth compass when he is about 10 or 15 degrees high, either in the forenoon or afternoon. See AZIMUTH COMPASS.
AZIMUTH COMPASS is an instrument used at sea for finding the sun’s magnetical azimuth. See MAGNETICAL AZIMUTH. The description and use of the azimuth compass, see under the article AZIMUTH COMPASS.
AZIMUTH DIAL, is a dial whose style or gnomon is at right angles to the plane of the horizon. See DIAL.
