IMMERSION
, the act of plunging into water, or some other fluid.
Immersion, in Astronomy, is when a star, or planet comes so near the sun, that it cannot be seen<*> being as it were enveloped, and hid in the rays of that luminary.
Immersion also denotes the beginning of an eclipse, or of an occultation, when the body, or any part of it just begins to disappear, either behind the edge of another body, or in its shadow. As, in an eclipse of the moon, when she begins to be darkened by entering into the shadow of the earth: or the beginning of an eclipse of the sun, when the moon's disc just begins to cover him: or the beginning of the eclipses of any of the satellites, as those of Jupiter, by entering into his shadow: or, lastly, the beginning of an occultation of any star or planet, by passing behind the body of the moon or another planet. In all these cases, the darkened body is said to immerge, or to be immerged, or begin to be hid, by dipping as it were into the shade. In like manner, when the darkened body begins to appear again, it is said to emerge, or come out of darkness again.
