, in Astronomy and Navigation, is the observing with an instrument some celestial phenomenon; as, the altitude of the sun, moon, or stars, or their distances asunder, &c. But by this term the seamen commonly mean only the taking the meridian altitudes, in order to find the latitude. And the finding the latitude from such observed altitude, they call working an observation.
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Entry taken from A Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary, by Charles Hutton, 1796.
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