Astr. Obs. [a. OF. auge (also in It. and Sp.), a. Arab. awj, ‘height, top, summit, higher apsis of sun or planet.’]
1. The highest point of the apparent course of the sun, moon, or a planet; fig. culmination, climax; = APOGEE 2, 3
1617. Collins, Def. Bp. Ely, II. ix. 405. They were in the Auge, or in the Zenith, in their first loue.
a. 1679. T. Goodwin, Wks. (1864), VIII. 445. The promises … in the Old Testament … were in their prime, in their auge.
2. The ‘high apsis’ in the orbit of the moon or any planet; i.e., the point at which it is at its greatest distance from the earth; = APOGEE 1.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., III. I. viii. 287. Auges … be certaine imagined points in the heaven, notifying the furthest distance of any Orbe or Spheare from the Center of the world. Ibid., VII. xliv. 730. His [the moon’s] slow motion is when he is in the point called Auge or Apogeon.
3. Extended to both apsides.
1681. Wharton, Mut. Empires, Wks. (1683), 131. When the Auges, (or Absides) of the Planets are changed from one Sign to another.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., Auges, two points in a planet’s orbit, otherwise called apsides. One of the auges is particularly denominated the apogee, the other perigee.
4. The orbit of a planet; = APSIS 1.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 10. Those eccentrique circles or Epicycles in the stars, which the Greekes call Absides.… Now euery one of the planets haue particular Auges or circles aforesaid by themselues.
