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IMPORTANT NOTICE! Never use a telescope or spotting scope to look at the Sun!

Observing the Sun, even for the shortest fraction of a

second, will cause irreversible damage to your eye as well as physical damage to the telescope or spotting scope itself.

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Meade LX200 Instruction Manuals

7" Maksutov-Cassegrain Telescope 8", 10", and 12" Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescopes

APPENDIX B: EQUATORIAL USE

[ toc ] 1. Celestial Coordinates: Declination and Right Ascension

Analogous to the Earth-based coordinate system of latitude and longitude, celestial objects are mapped according to a coordinate system on the "celestial sphere," the imaginary sphere on which all stars appear to be placed. The Poles of the celestial coordinate system are defined as those 2 points where the Earth's rotational axis, if extended to infinity, North and South, intersect the celestial

sphere. Thus, the North Celestial Pole is that point in the sky where an extension of the Earth's axis through the North Pole intersects the celestial sphere. In fact, this point in the sky is located near the North Star, or Polaris.

On the surface of the Earth, "lines of longitude" are drawn between the North and South Poles. Similarly, "lines of latitude" are drawn in an East-West direction, parallel to the Earth's equator. The celestial equator is simply a projection of the Earth's equator onto the celestial sphere. Just as on the surface of the Earth, imaginary lines have been drawn on the celestial sphere to form a coordinate grid. Celestial object positions on the Earth's surface are specified by their latitude and longitude.

The celestial equivalent to Earth latitude is called "Declination," or simply "Dec," and is measured in degrees, minutes or seconds north ("+") or south ("-") of the celestial equator. Thus any point on the celestial equator (which passes, for example, through the constellations Orion, Virgo and Aquarius) is specified as having 0°0'0" Declination. The Declination of the star Polaris, located very near the North Celestial Pole, is +89.2°.

The celestial equivalent to Earth longitude is called "Right Ascension," or "R.A." and is measured in hours, minutes and seconds from an arbitrarily defined "zero" line of R.A. passing through the constellation Pegasus. Right Ascension coordinates range from 0hr0min0sec up to (but not including) 24hr0min0sec. Thus there are 24 primary lines of R.A., located at 15 degree intervals along the celestial equator. Objects located further and further east of the prime (0h0m0s) Right Ascension grid line carry increasing R.A. coordinates.

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