Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
On Earth, a pole star would lie directly overhead when viewed from the North or the South Pole. Currently, Earth's pole stars are Polaris (Alpha Ursae Minoris), a bright magnitude 2 star aligned approximately with its northern axis that serves as a pre-eminent star in celestial navigation, and a much dimmer magnitude 5.5 star on its southern ...
While it may have been used by ancient Egyptians for star maps in some holy books, [1] the earliest text describing the azimuthal equidistant projection is an 11th-century work by al-Biruni. [2] An example of this system is the world map by ‛Ali b. Ahmad al-Sharafi of Sfax in 1571. [3]
The imaginary line around which Earth spins, which goes between the North Pole and South Pole, is tilted about 23° from the oval that describes its orbit around the Sun. Earth always points in the same direction as it moves around the Sun, so for half the year (summer in the Northern Hemisphere), the North Pole is pointed slightly toward the ...
Sigma Octantis is a solitary [9] star in the Octans constellation that forms the pole star of the Southern Hemisphere.Its name is also written as σ Octantis, abbreviated as Sigma Oct or σ Oct, and it is officially named Polaris Australis (/ p oʊ ˈ l ɛər ɪ s ɔː ˈ s t r eɪ l ɪ s /). [10]
The south celestial pole over the Very Large Telescope [3] Locating the south celestial pole. The south celestial pole is visible only from the Southern Hemisphere. It lies in the dim constellation Octans, the Octant. Sigma Octantis is identified as the south pole star, more than one degree away from the pole, but with a magnitude of 5.5 it is ...
The Geographic South Pole is marked by the stake on the right NASA image showing Antarctica and the South Pole in 2005. The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is the point in the Southern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface.
Planetary magnetic poles are defined analogously to the Earth's North and South magnetic poles: they are the locations on the planet's surface at which the planet's magnetic field lines are vertical. The direction of the field determines whether the pole is a magnetic north or south pole, exactly as on Earth.
Chart of the southern constellations from declination –40° to the south celestial pole by the Jesuit missionary François Noël published in Acta Eruditorum, 1711.. From the South Pole, in good visibility conditions, the Southern Sky features over 2,000 fixed stars that are easily visible to the naked eye, while about 20,000 to 40,000 with the aided eye.