heliostat

heliostat

See also: Heliostat and héliostat

English

A heliostat. In this case and most others, the mirror rotates on a computer-controlled, motor-driven alt-azimuth mount.

Etymology

Circa 1750, from New Latin heliostata, from Ancient Greek ἥλιος (hḗlios, “sun”) + Latin status (“stationary”).

Noun

heliostat (plural heliostats)

1. 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.

Translations

device to continuously reflect sunlight toward a predetermined target, almost always in some fixed direction, despite the sun's motions in the sky

French: héliostat (fr) m German: Heliostat (de) m Ido: heliostato (io)

Italian: eliostato Spanish: heliostato m, helióstato m

Anagrams

• loathiest, thiolates