Transit

1. The act of passing; passage through or over.
2. The act or process of causing to pass; conveyance; as, the transit of goods through a country.
3. A line or route of passage or conveyance; as, the Nicaragua transit.
4. An instrument resembling a theodolite, used by surveyors and engineers; -- called also transit compass, and surveyor's transit.
1. The passage of a heavenly body over the meridian of a place, or through the field of a telescope.
2. The passage of a smaller body across the disk of a larger, as of Venus across the sun's disk, or of a satellite or its shadow across the disk of its primary.
Lower transit (Astron.),
the passage of a heavenly body across that part of the meridian which is below the polar axis.
Surveyor's transit .
See Transit, 5, above.
Transit circle (Astron.),
a transit instrument with a graduated circle attached, used for observing the time of transit and the declination at one observation. See Circle, n., 3.
Transit compass .
See Transit, 5, above.
Transit duty ,
a duty paid on goods that pass through a country.
Transit instrument
1. A telescope mounted at right angles to a horizontal axis, on which it revolves with its line of collimation in the plane of the meridian, -- used in connection with a clock for observing the time of transit of a heavenly body over the meridian of a place.
Transit trade (Com.),
the business conected with the passage of goods through a country to their destination.
Upper transit (Astron.),
the passage of a heavenly body across that part of the meridian which is above the polar axis.

1. To pass over the disk of (a heavenly body).