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Zenith word has following meanings:
- The point on the celestial sphere that is directly above the observer
- The upper region of the sky
- The highest point above the observer's horizon attained by a celestial body
- The point of culmination, the peak.
In general terms, the zenith is the direction pointing directly "above" a particular location;
that is, it is one of two vertical directions at the location, orthogonal to a horizontal flat
surface there. The concept of "above" is more specifically defined in astronomy, geophysics
and related sciences as the vertical direction opposite to the net gravitational force at
a given location. The opposite direction, i.e. the direction of the gravitational force
is called the nadir. The term zenith also refers to the highest point reached by a celestial body
during its apparent orbit around a given point of observation. This sense of the word is
often used to describe the location of the Sun, but it is only technically accurate for one
latitude at a time and only possible at the low latitudes.
The zenith is used in the following scientific contexts:
- It serves as the direction of reference for measuring the zenith angle, which is the angular distance between a direction of a star and the local zenith, relative to the point for which the zenith is defined.
- It defines one of the axes of the horizontal coordinate system in astronomy.
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