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The Carrington heliographic coordinate system, established by Richard C. Carrington in 1863, rotates with the Sun at a fixed rate based on the observed rotation of low-latitude sunspots. It rotates with a sidereal period of exactly 25.38 days, which corresponds to a mean synodic period of 27.2753 days.
Quadrants are described using ordinals—for example, "1st galactic quadrant", [1] "second galactic quadrant", [2] or "third quadrant of the Galaxy". [3] Viewing from the north galactic pole with 0 degrees (°) as the ray that runs starting from the Sun and through the galactic center, the quadrants are as follows (where l is galactic longitude):
The geocentric ecliptic system was the principal coordinate system for ancient astronomy and is still useful for computing the apparent motions of the Sun, Moon, and planets. [3] It was used to define the twelve astrological signs of the zodiac , for instance.
Solar longitude, commonly abbreviated as Ls, is the ecliptic longitude of the Sun, i.e. the position of the Sun on the celestial sphere along the ecliptic.It is also an effective measure of the position of the Earth (or any other Sun-orbiting body) in its orbit around the Sun, [1] usually taken as zero at the moment of the vernal equinox. [2]
The time when the Sun transits the observer's meridian depends on the geographic longitude. To find the Sun's position for a given location at a given time, one may therefore proceed in three steps as follows: [1] [2] calculate the Sun's position in the ecliptic coordinate system, convert to the equatorial coordinate system, and
The galactic latitude (b) is perpendicular to the image (i.e. coming out of the image) and also centered on the Sun. The galactic coordinate system is a celestial coordinate system in spherical coordinates, with the Sun as its center, the primary direction aligned with the approximate center of the Milky Way Galaxy, and the fundamental plane ...
The solar azimuth angle is the azimuth (horizontal angle with respect to north) of the Sun's position. [1] [2] [3] This horizontal coordinate defines the Sun's relative direction along the local horizon, whereas the solar zenith angle (or its complementary angle solar elevation) defines the Sun's apparent altitude.
The Sun is 1.4 million kilometers (4.643 light-seconds) wide, about 109 times wider than Earth, or four times the Lunar distance, and contains 99.86% of all Solar System mass. The Sun is a G-type main-sequence star that makes up about 99.86% of the mass of the Solar System. [ 26 ]