Questions tagged [declination]
The declination tag has no usage guidance.
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Precise declination of Moon
The moon follows 5.14 deg inclined path. the ecliptic and the Moon's path coincide are called 'nodes', and they travel around the ecliptic in a period of 18.66 years.
Once every 18.66 years, the ...
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Where on Earth can moon rise on the meridian?
Somewhat related to this my picture showing only diurnal motion but Moon—seen from Earth—has a rapid motion with respect to the inertial celestial sphere, unlike stars and planets. Its motion relative ...
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How to calculate the time and distance of closest approach of a star?
How should I approach this problem?
A star has a motion on the sky of 0.78 arcsec/yr in declination and 1.33 arcsec/yr in right ascension.
Calculate the velocity of the star in the plane of the sky ...
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angles on the celestial sphere
This is a somewhat simplified, and drawn / formulated in a manner more targeted to astronomy, version of a diagram and a question that I've also posted in math.stackexchange.com.
In the diagram below ...
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Presenting / printing Right Ascension and Declination values
Are there any standards or established practices on how to write / represent Right Ascension (RA) and Declination (DEC) values in the sexagesimal format?
I have seen all of the following. E.g. for RA:
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When does a star rise with the sun?
Problem: Suppose an observer's latitude is 45 S and a star's RA/DEC is
3h15min/41S. On what date will the sun set with the star.
I have been stuck on this problem for a while.
I found out that the ...
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2answers
116 views
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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Declination calculation
My task is to calculate current declination and right ascension for some artificial Earth satellite. For example ISS.
I am using latest TLE data for extracting keplerian orbital elements and then ...
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1answer
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Convert a Decimal into RA or Dec
http://exoplanets.eu/ displays R.A. on screen in hh:mm:ss format but when you export the table, it gives the R.A. as a decimal. Likewise for Declination.
How can I turn for example 24.35417 (WASP-...
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Sun's position on summer solstice
Let's say I am in Brasilia (latitude = 15.78°S). This is obviously south of the equator but north of the tropic of capricorn. So on the summer solstice I know that the Sun's declination is +23.26°. ...
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Using setting circle for Right Ascension
I'm a little bit confused about the setting circle of my EQ5 mount. Basically, I'm trying to find M42 nebula using Sirius star as reference. So, considere that I did the following steps:
...
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1answer
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Measuring declination in negative hours of arc?
I'm running the program found at https://www.projectpluto.com/source.htm in order to find the Right ascensions and declinations of celestial bodies at various points in time. An odd thing I've noticed ...
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Nodes and declinations of Moon
This nice page from NASA has the possibility to create an astronomical events calendar for a certain period. I tried to do that for the year 2017 for Central Europe. What comes out puzzles me:
On ...
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1answer
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Is there a difference between the solar elevation angle and sun declination?
I need to use the sunrise equation but one of the variables is the sun declination. On the other hand, I have the values for solar elevation angle that I need. Are they the same thing?
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Ecliptic plane, its precise definition useful for calculations
My question is similar to the one posted by Abtract, whom however never got a useful answer. I am trying to calculate from scratch the exact times of sunrise and sunset anywhere on earth taking into ...
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1answer
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Where is 0 R.A.?
If declination is the degree measurement from the celestial equator roughly the Earth equator unless I've misunderstand plane. "The celestial equator is a great circle on the imaginary celestial ...
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Centre (projected) of a galaxy cluster
A galaxy cluster consists of somewhere around a few tens to several hundred galaxies.
To measure the position of a galaxy cluster, i.e. it's RA and DEC, do astronomers always assume it to be its ...
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Why are tides biggest during the equinoxes?
I've read that during the equinoxes, tides are at their maximum. Shouldn't this only apply to latitudes near the equator? I mean, when the solar declination is near to 0º and we have a full or new ...
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1answer
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an exercise from Spherical Astronomy by Smart
I want to solve this exercise from Spherical Astronomy by Smart:
Prove that, in latitude 45°, the interval between the moment at which a star's azimuth is 90° east and the moment of setting is ...
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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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1answer
739 views
Calculating Right Ascension and Declination from Latitude / Longitude / Time
I have a latitude / longitude / time of a location on Earth, I need to calculate the Right Ascension / Declination that's overhead at the time provided.
So far I've found out that Right Ascension is ...
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1answer
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Why is declination positive in the northern hemisphere?
Simple question -- why is declination positive in the northern hemisphere?
Seems like it should've been called "inclination" since the word originated north of the equator.
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Declination change due to precession
I have this problem: I want to calculate the declination of the star in the year 5000. And I know RA (right ascension) and Dec (declination) of the star right now.
How can I calculate it using ...
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1answer
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How to find maximum and minimum right acsension and declination based on the telescope's location?
If I am to apply at a telescope for viewing objects, how to determine (easily) what is the minimum and maximum possible RA and DEC visible from that telescope during that time of the year. For eg, ...
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Low precision GMST formula clarification
According to the website http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/GAST.php, a low-precision way of calculating the GMST is via the following formula:
GMST = 18.697374558 + 24.06570982441908 D
The website ...
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1answer
733 views
Calculate Dec and RA of a star from Euler angles and GPS data
I have 9DOF sensor (accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer) that gives orientation via Euler angles (yaw, pitch, roll). Along with GPS data (latitude, longitude, elevation, time) this is passed to ...
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Which is the shape of the sky?
I'm a software developer and I'm developing a planetarium and the first thing that I don't know is: What is the shape of the sky?
First, I though that it is a semi-sphere, but searching on Internet I ...
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1answer
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Declination and Ascension - the Sun and Andromeda
If Andromeda is overhead at midnight, what is the right ascension of the sun? (andromeda is ar RA =1hr, Dec = +40).
I thought I understood what Dec and RA were, but I can't think of how to start this ...
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1answer
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how steady over time are right ascension and declination values?
I understand that astronomers use right ascension and declination for the position of stars. However both these values strike me as very anthropocentric and, more importantly, unreliable over time as ...
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1answer
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Calculation of right ascension and declination
I am confused about this problem:
If I see an object from Mount Teide (longitude is 16"30'E and latitude is 28"18'N) that passes the meridian (azimuth=0) at 5h (am) UTC, and I also know that the ...
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3answers
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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?
