heliostat
A device that includes a plane mirror which turns so as to keep reflecting sunlight…A device that includes a plane mirror which turns so as to keep reflecting sunlight toward a predetermined target, compensating for the sun's apparent motions in the sky. The target may be a physical object, distant from the heliostat, or a direction in space, and is almost always stationary relative to the heliostat, so the light is reflected in a fixed direction.
Meaning
1 sensesA device that includes a plane mirror which turns so as to keep reflecting sunlight toward a predetermined target, compensating for the sun's apparent motions in the sky. The target may be a physical object, distant from the heliostat, or a direction in space, and is almost always stationary relative to the heliostat, so the light is reflected in a fixed direction.
Heliostat
Translations
4 languagesBy meaning 1
Origin
First use appear c. 1747, from New Latin heliostata, from Ancient Greek ἥλιος (hḗlios, “suFirst use appear c. 1747, from New Latin heliostata, from Ancient Greek ἥλιος (hḗlios, “sun”) + Latin status (“stationary”). By surface analysis, helio- + -stat.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: heliostats| Singular | heliostat |
|---|---|
| Plural | heliostats |
regular
Word family
1 related wordsSee also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.