The Midheaven, in Latin medium coeli and commonly abbreviated MC, is the point where the ecliptic crosses the meridian above the horizon: the degree culminating, the highest point the zodiac reaches at that moment and place. It is the cusp of the tenth house in the quadrant house systems and carries the significations of profession, standing, reputation, honours, the sovereign, and the visible course of a life. In some house systems, notably whole-sign houses as used in Hellenistic practice, the Midheaven is not necessarily the tenth-house cusp at all but floats among the ninth, tenth or eleventh signs, a point which the revival of ancient technique over the last thirty years has brought back into discussion. The Midheaven is not equivalent to the zenith, which is the point directly overhead and only coincides with the MC at particular latitudes and moments.
The equatorial ascendant, or East Point, is a related but distinct calculated point sometimes confused with the Midheaven, marking where the celestial equator, rather than the ecliptic, intersects the horizon in the east; it is used chiefly in the same quadrant house systems that generate the Midheaven's own tenth-house cusp and is one of several secondary angle-like points that entered use alongside the four principal angles as chart calculation became more elaborate through the twentieth century.