sidereal day

noun

plural sidereal days

: the interval between two successive transits of a point on the celestial sphere (such as the vernal equinox) over the upper meridian of a place : 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4.1 seconds of mean time

In recent experiments, the frequency … was found to vary by not more than 100 μHz over a sidereal day as the rotation of the earth changed the orientation of the ions (fixed by the laboratory magnetic field) with respect to the external universe.

—David Golden

Examples of sidereal day in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

That extra 4 minutes (really 3 m 56 s) is the difference between a solar and sidereal day. —Phil Plait, Discover Magazine, 1 Jan. 2012

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1678, in the meaning defined above