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Fred you wrote:
> Another meaning for zenith given by the Oxford English Dictionary
> (http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/zenith?view=uk) is "the highest
> point in the sky reached by a given celestial object."  This is an
> additional meaning to the point directly overhead.  However, both the
> Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica mention only the point directly
> overhead.  It would appear the scientific usage is restricted to the
> point directly overhead.

Just remember that the OED also includes 'incorrect' usages since, by
their standards, usage is king, and therefore there's almost no such
thing as incorrect usage (apart from pure typographic errors). So, for
example, "irregardless" is in the OED despite the fact that no one
with any pride in their usage of English would be caught dead using
it. For scientific terminology, there's clearly correct usage and
incorrect usage. For the modern scientific use of the word, zenith,
it's the point straight up, the single point 90 degrees away from the
astronomical horizon. And by the way, that's the only way it's defined
in the back of the modern Bowditch. Of course, "zenith" also has a
metaphoric meaning in non-scientific usage: something is "at its
zenith" when it has peaked in some sense, so you might read about the
"Roman Empire at its zenith" or perhaps an "actor's career at its
zenith". When that metaphoric usage is turned back and applied to the
original astronomical case, then we see this odd idea of the "Sun at
its zenith" when trying to say that it has reached its maximum
altitude. No one trying to communicate navigational or astronomical
concepts should use zenith that way. The zenith is straight up. That's
all.

-FER


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