Questions tagged [coordinate]
Questions on systems to uniquely determine position of a point or other geometric element on a manifold such as Euclidean space.
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Where is it possible to observe the Moon for 24 hours?
I wrote an astronomy olympiad yesterday and there was one task I couldn't figure out an answer to:
Estimate at what latitudes it is possible to observe the Moon for at least 24 hours. Under what ...
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Could someone explain RA/dec in simple terms?
The equatorial coordinate system isn't too complicated. However, for people new to this, it seems rather intimidating at first.
Is there an easy way to explain it?
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Do stars of a galaxy change their positions relatively to each other?
Complete astronomy noob over here who would be happy if he get a simple answer (and who is also aware that this may be not possible)...
I've learned from a tv documentary that the stars at the edge ...
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Local Sidereal Time
I am trying to understand how to calculate local sidereal time and have found the following formula:
$$\text{LST} = 100.46 + 0.985647 \cdot d + \text{long} + 15 \cdot \text{UT}$$
Here, $d$ is the ...
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Coordinate system for space [closed]
I am high school student, I have doubt if I have to locate a planet or any star in space, how do I locate it, because we have no perfect coordinate system, I have read in some books, that time is ...
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How to convert density from physical unit to comoving unit?
I am learning co-moving units and I am interested to see how the conversion works. If Hubble constant is assumed to be 0.7, then I want to convert $1gm/cm^3$ into comoving unit. If I want to express ...
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Given a date obtain latitude and longitude where is the sun zenith
Searching is easy to find terminator line (frontier between day and night) or the position of the sun in the sky given a position on the earth and a time; but I can't find how to obtain where is the ...
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Determining latitude and longitude in bad weather
In Sobel's famous book 'Longitude', she described the story of Harrison. I still have one question. What if it is cloudy on the sea? In this case, the sailors have nothing to compare with, right? This ...
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How do I plot galactic coordinates using matplotlib and astropy in python?
I want to make a projection of millisecond pulsars on the galactic plane, much like this one from Sala et al. 2004:
I have tried several methods, and have not gotten anywhere. This is my current ...
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Planetary reference systems and time
I am researching into how coordinate systems of solar systems objects are created by reading some of the reports written by the Working Group on Cartographic Coordinates and Rotational Elements (e.g. ...
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Need Simple equation for Rise, Transit, and Set time
I've been looking, unsuccessfully, for hours for a simple set of equations:
Input:
RA and Dec of an object
Observers Lat and Lng
Current Time
Output:
Rise Time
Transit Time
Set Time
(and, ...
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Different times of sunset at the same location due to elevation
Me and my friend were watching the sunset on the same location (at my country the latitude is approximately 40 degrees). I am at sea level and my friend is at an elevation. He observed the sunset with ...
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Calculate latitude and longitude based on date and sun
I can't seem to find this algorithm, if it exists. Can you calculate the longitude and latitude of where you are standing based on the date and the angle of the sun? Also, would the algorithm work for ...
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Calculation of Horizontal Coordinates
Given a fixed coordinate location on Earth (i.e. a latitude and longitude), and a fixed equatorial coordinate location of a particular astronomical object in the sky (i.e. right ascension and ...
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How was the galactic plane established?
As pointed out in this answer the axes of galactic coordinates are defined such that galactic longitude and latitude (0, 0) point toward the galactic center. But then the plane defined by galactic ...
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Why is the symbol of Vernal Equinox ♈?
Since the direction of Vernal Equinox lies in the Pisces constellation, why is its symbol Aries? Shouldn't it be ♓ ?
Is this a historical anachronism, only invalidated by axial precession of Earth?
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Conventional units for astronomical object coordinates
I would like to know what the conventional units for identifying a celestial object (J2000.0) are. For instance, I am reading a paper in which they refer to object SDSSJ170013.70+400855.6; I am ...
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Calculating RA/dec from JPL ephemeris data
I'm using JPL planetary ephemerides to calculate the position of planets. Using DE405 ephemeris (using a parser provided by Project Pluto with all tests passing). I am fetching the position of Mars ...
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Why is right ascension measured in hours?
When viewing star maps in Stellarium, I noticed that the meridians of the equatorial grid were denoted in hours and not degrees, and that always puzzled me. Why did astronomers choose this system? I ...
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What is the maximum latitude from which a satellite in a geostationary orbit around Saturn would be visible to an observer on the planet?
This question is part astronomy and part mathematics. I'm aware it involves “basic” trigonometry, but my brain is short-circuiting.
From my calculations, the distance from the center of Saturn where a ...
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Can someone explain to me the TEME reference frame in defining orbital coordinates?
I am undertaking a project of developing a "surface station" for my desktop, which will track the position of different satellites as they fly overhead. I have zero background in ...
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Doubt about a computation in Jules Verne
In his Aventures de trois Russes et de trois Anglais dans l'Afrique australe (The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa), Jules Verne describes in some detail the geodetic ...
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Convert coordinates between RA/dec and WGS 84 (SRID=4326)
I've imported the HYG Database from http://www.astronexus.com/node/34 and now I need to convert all RA/dec stars positions to fit in a WGS 84 coordinates (SRID=4326) PostGIS map (-180 to 180, 90 to -...
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Coordinates in the Night Sky
I've learned about Orbits recently, and there are 6 orbital elements. Now, I've heard of three coordinate systems whereas, they can help you measure positions of stars in the night sky. The Altazimuth,...
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Where is the North of the Universe
Does it exist North of the Universe? (Which is probably used for determining coordinates of far galaxies.)
If so, then where it is?
On what is it aligned? (Is it orientated on Earth, Sun, Milky Way, ...
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Difference between J2000, FK5 and ICRS coordinate systems? Which one does the Yale Bright Star Catalog use?
I have no background in astronomy. I have been wanting to write code to make star charts for a given location and time, which led to this question.
I figured out that I would need to convert the ...
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Data to "check" Kepler’s first law
I want to "check" Kepler’s first law by using real data of Mars. From the equation of the ellipse, I derived
$$\frac{1}{r}=\frac{a}{b^2}+\frac{a}{b^2}\cdot\epsilon\cdot\cos(\varphi),$$
where ...
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Software to convert RA and DEC into ALT and AZ
I have implemented the formulas to convert AR and Dec into altitude and Azimuth in C++ following the book Practical Astronomy with your Calculator or Spreadsheet 4th Edition.
In the book there is an ...
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Conversion between Astronomical Frames, ex. IRCF, FK5, FK4, etc…
I'm a little bit confused about reference frames, and I was wondering if someone could help clarify a few things?
So let's say I have equatorial coordinates that refer to the mean equator and equinox ...
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What part of the milky way do we see from earth?
When looking up at the night sky, we can sometimes observe a bright band of stars stretching across it. I know this is our galaxy but exactly what are we looking at?
Could we look at the centre of ...
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Airy's Water Filled Telescope: help required to fully understand the calibration procedure followed
I am reading/studying the instrument description of Airy's Water Filled Telescope (Airy, G. B., "History and Description of the Water Telescope of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich", ...
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Latitude, longitude and altitude of Ckoirama Observatory; where can things like this be looked-up?
This answer to Is Starlink 1130 (Darksat) really dimmer? links to the March 16, 2020 paper in arXiv First observations and magnitude measurement of SpaceX's Darksat which finds only a modest decrease ...
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Measurement unit of coordinate systems in astronomy
Nearly all of the coordinate system I have studied in Positional astronomy use the degree system. This makes me curious about why astronomers prefer degrees over radians as we know that Radian is a ...
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Measuring misalignment between two positions on sky
Let's say I have the (RA,Dec) for two positions on the sky. I want to measure the position angle between these two positions. In other words, if I had the Cartesian coordinate vectors for these two ...
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Why is right ascension measured on a 24 hour scale rather than a 23 hours and 56 minutes scale?
From several texts I have read, I have learned that right ascension is measured on a scale of 24 hours. I understand that Earth rotates almost exactly 360 degrees relative to distant objects, which is ...
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Is there a map of the galaxies?
I see that there are many maps of a single galaxy, the Milky Way, showing the positions of the stars within our galaxy.
I could not find a map of Galaxies, however. Is there such a map? In lieu of ...
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Are the Vernal Point and the Autumnal Point two antipodal points on the celestial sphere?
Intersections of the elliptic and the equatorial planes on the celestial sphere are the Vernal Point and the Autumnal Point. Are these two points two antipodes on the celestial sphere of the Earth?
user47535
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Why do J2000 coordinates change with time in Stellarium?
I'm new to the field so I'm sure this is a basic misunderstanding.
As I currently understand it, J2000 equatorial coordinates describe the position of objects by referencing a specific point in time (...
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Astronomical Term *Mezzocielo*
What is the name of the point of intersection of the great circle passing through the celestial north pole P and the Zenith Z, with the celestial equator? (Point T in the figure)
In Italian this point ...
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What kind of a visual trajectory would an asteroid have if it were to hit Earth?
Let's say that Peter has a set of superb telescopes and he's watching the sky every night, for 3-4 months. He may not know it just yet, but there is an asteroid heading towards Earth, on a crash ...
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Plotting Equatorial coordinates to X,Y plane (simulating telescope/camera view)
I would like to simulate a telescope camera view, projecting (RA, Dec) coordinate sets to a 2D plane. So effectively the need is to convert Equatorial coordinates to (x, y) coordinates, when we can ...
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Is the longitude assigned to sunspots spherical or projected?
Sunspot maps are created from a projection of the sun, so the coordinates of sunspots (or active regions in general) are assigned according to it.
Do these coordinates correspond to actual spherical ...
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Transformation of hour angle to azimuth
Converting Hour angle to Azimuth, is there a simple way to know which result is correct (as the formulas and the arccosine give various results shifted by 180° etc.), or does one just have to figure ...
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Problem in converting equatoral coordinates to ecliptic coordinates
I would like to convert equatoral coordinates to ecliptique coordinates. I am following the source below:
Practical Astronomy with Your Calculator
The formula I am using is:
When I solve this example,...
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Solar Azimuth angle Derivation
I tried posting this on math stack exchange to no avail so I thought maybe it's more relevant here :
I know a similar question has been posted here before but no links to any mathematical derivations ...
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Usefulness of the hour angle (HA)
The Hour Angle (HA) is measured west from the observer's meridian in hours, mins, seconds.
How is the Hour Angle used to help plan observations during the night at a telescope?
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Coordinate transformations between reference frames in spherical astronomy
Suppose there are two observational frames of reference with origins $O$ and $O'$, respectively, separated by some constant distance. A body located at point $P$ has Cartesian coordinates $\left(x,y,z\...
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Mathematics for Conversion between ICRS and AltAz
I am writing some software, for my own learning experience, to convert astronomical coordinates to different frames of reference. An example of this would be conversion between ICRS which a lot of ...
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How can the IAU 2000A vs IAU 2000B nutation comparison be reproduced?
I am attempting to plot how the IAU 2000A nutation model degrades as its terms are omitted. As a spot-check, I decided to compare it to IAU 2000B, which includes only the 77 most important lunisolar ...
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Information about known objects in the Universe
I want to retrieve coordinates, photos, and information (size, atmosphere composition, distance from Earth, etc.) about every known object in the universe. Ideally, the information is available via an ...
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