I am sure I get parts of the terminology wrong but if anyone can shed some light in the following:
I understand that for a given right ascension (RA) and declination (DEC), one has defined a ray (half-line) in the sky starting from the center of the earth towards infinity.
Now, if I also provide a angle, say d
degrees around that ray, I have essentially defined a cone in the sky. My question is the following:
Which steps (RA_step
and DEC_step
) should I use in the following loop, as a function of d
to ensure that I cover the entire sky and don't leave any patches anywhere?.
for (RA = 0 ; RA <= 360 ; RA += RA_step)
for (DEC = -90 ; DEC <= 90 ; DEC += DEC_step)
examine-cone(RA, DEC, d)