Zenith

Zenith refers to an imaginary point directly "above" a particular location, on the imaginary celestial sphere. "Above" means in the vertical direction opposite to the apparent gravitational force at that location. The opposite direction, i.e. the direction in which gravity pulls, is toward the nadir. The zenith is the "highest" point on the celestial sphere (meaning it is the farthest up from the gravitational force). Zenith is sometimes used as a given name, most commonly for males. Its meaning, "highest point," evokes success and power.

Origin

The word "zenith" derives from an inaccurate reading of the Arabic expression سمت الرأس (samt ar-ra's), meaning "direction of the head" or "path above the head", by Medieval Latin scribes in the Middle Ages (during the 14th century), possibly through Old Spanish. It was reduced to 'samt' ("direction") and miswritten as 'senit'/'cenit', as the "m" was misread as an "ni". Through the Old French 'cenith', 'zenith' first appeared in the 17th century.

Decipher (After Forever album)

Decipher is the second album by Dutch symphonic metal band After Forever, released in 2001. In this album, the band make use of live classical instruments and a complete choir to back up the soprano voice of lead singer Floor Jansen. Thrown in the mix are also a duet of soprano and tenor voices in "Imperfect Tenses" and the recording of the late Israeli PM Yizhak Rabin voice during the Peace treaty signing ceremony on October 26, 1994 on "Forlorn Hope". This is the last After Forever album with guitarist and founder Mark Jansen, who left the band soon after its release.

The album has been re-released by Transmission Records in 2003 in a limited edition of 5,000 copies worldwide. The limited edition in digipack had an extended booklet, a sticker with new artwork and two bonus live tracks.

The album was re-released in 2012 as a 2-disc set by the re-financed Transmission Records.

Track listings

Personnel

References

MV Zenith

MV Zenith is a cruise ship owned by the Spain-based shipping company Pullmantur Cruises. She was built in 1992 by Meyer Werft, Papenburg, Germany for Celebrity Cruises.

The Zenith was built as a sister ship to Celebrity Cruises' first newbuild MV Horizon. Her interiors were designed by Michael Katsourakis and British designer John McNeece. The Zenith was delivered in February 1992 and set under Liberian flag. She was used for cruises from Florida to the Caribbean and Bermuda islands. In 2002 she was reflagged in the Bahamas. In 2007 she was transferred to Pullmantur Cruises and used for cruises around the Mediterranean.

A 7-Night Cruise from 11 to 18 March 1995 aboard the Zenith is the subject of David Foster Wallace's 1995 essay "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" (collected in a collection of the same name and originally published in Harper's as "Shipping Out"). Wallace refers to the Zenith as the Nadir throughout (although he insists "the rechristening's nothing particular against the ship itself").

Zenith (building)

The Zenith is a culture and exhibition centre, converted from an old railway reparation hall, located in Freimann, Munich, Germany.

The centre hosts concerts, fairs, company presentations and parties. The centre can hold up to six thousand people and has a floor area of 5046 m². The main stage is 24×16 metres in area. Its capacity is approximately 7,000 people

History

The building is of a unique architectural style, and formerly served as a railway construction and reparation hall. It was originally built from 1916 to 1918. The building is protected.

External links

References

Coordinates: 48°11′41″N 11°36′30″E / 48.19472°N 11.60833°E / 48.19472; 11.60833

Winnemac (fictional U.S. state)

Winnemac is a fictional U.S.state invented by the writer Sinclair Lewis. His novel Babbitt takes place in Zenith, its largest city (population 361,000, according to a sketch-map Lewis made to guide his writing.). Winnemac is also a setting for Gideon Planish, Arrowsmith, Elmer Gantry, and Dodsworth.

Description

Lewis turned to the creation of a fictional locale after residents of Sauk Centre, Minnesota, were upset with the town's portrayal in Main Street. In one of the essays in "Sinclair Lewis: A Collection of Critical Essays" Mark Schorer describes "the state of Winnemac" as "more typical than any real state in the Union". In "The Last of the Provincials: The American Novel, 1915–1925" noted critic H. L. Mencken sees Winnemac as exemplifying the "standardized chain-store state" of the midwest. In his critical study of Sinclair Lewis, Sheldon Grebstein notes that the "average mid-western state called Winnemac" is an amalgamation of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan.

Zenith camera

A zenith camera is an astrogeodetic telescope used today primarily for the local surveys of Earth's gravity field. Zenith cameras are designed as transportable field instruments for the direct observation of the plumb line (astronomical coordinates) and vertical deflections.

Instrument

A zenith camera combines an optical lens (about 10–20 cm aperture) with a digital image sensor (CCD) in order to image stars near the zenith. Electronic levels (tilt sensors) serve as a means to point the lens towards zenith. Zenith cameras are generally mounted on a turnable platform to allow star images to be taken in two camera directions (two-face-measurement). Because zenith cameras are usually designed as non-tracking and non-scanning instruments, exposure times are kept short, at the order of few 0.1 s, yielding rather circular star images. Exposure epochs are mostly recorded by means of the timing-capability of GPS-receivers (time-tagging).

Data processing

Depending on the CCD sensor - lens combination used, few 10s to 100s of stars are captured with a single digital zenith image. The positions of imaged stars are measured by means of digital image processing algorithms, such as image moment analysis or point spread functions to fit the star images. Star catalogues, such as Tycho-2 or UCAC-3 are used as celestial reference to reduce the star images. The zenith point is interpolated into the field of imaged stars, and corrected for the exposure time and (small) tilt of the telescope axis to yield the direction of the plumb line.