circle of illumination

circle of illumination

[′sər·kəl əv ə‚lü·mə′nā·shən]
(geology)
The edge of the sunlit hemisphere, which forms a circular boundary separating the earth into a light half and a dark half.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
References in periodicals archive ?
The great circle on the earth's surface that is orthogonal to the sun's rays is known as the circle of illumination which is formed by the intersection of the earth with the xz plane.
These points lie 0.833[degrees] beyond the circle of illumination (which is the great circle obtained by the intersection of the earth with the xz plane) and, thus, it is daybreak at T and sunset at S, since the earth turns counterclockwise when viewed from above the North Pole.
The time from sunrise to sunset
The light source provided a circle of illumination that was not quite large enough for photography at the lowest magnifications.
Colpophotography systems: a review
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