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Animation showing the difference between a sidereal day and a solar day. Sidereal time ("sidereal" pronounced / saɪˈdɪəriəl, sə -/ sy-DEER-ee-əl, sə-) is a system of timekeeping used especially by astronomers. Using sidereal time and the celestial coordinate system, it is easy to locate the positions of celestial objects in the night sky.
Orbit insertion. v. t. e. The orbital period (also revolution period) is the amount of time a given astronomical object takes to complete one orbit around another object. In astronomy, it usually applies to planets or asteroids orbiting the Sun, moons orbiting planets, exoplanets orbiting other stars, or binary stars.
The United States Naval Observatory states "the Equation of Time is the difference apparent solar time minus mean solar time", i.e. if the sun is ahead of the clock the sign is positive, and if the clock is ahead of the sun the sign is negative. [6] [7] The equation of time is shown in the upper graph above for a period of slightly more than a ...
Hour angle. The hour angle is indicated by an orange arrow on the celestial equator plane. The arrow ends at the hour circle of an orange dot indicating the apparent place of an astronomical object on the celestial sphere. In astronomy and celestial navigation, the hour angle is the dihedral angle between the meridian plane (containing Earth's ...
Sidereal time is the hour angle of the equinox. However, there are two types: if the mean equinox is used (that which only includes precession), it is called mean sidereal time; if the true equinox is used (the actual location of the equinox at a given instant), it is called apparent sidereal time.
On a prograde planet like the Earth, the sidereal day is shorter than the solar day. At time 1, the Sun and a certain distant star are both overhead. At time 2, the planet has rotated 360° and the distant star is overhead again (1→2 = one sidereal day). But it is not until a little later, at time 3, that the Sun is overhead again (1→3 = one solar day). More simply, 1→2 is a complete ...
Sidereal year. A sidereal year (/ saɪˈdɪəri.əl /, US also / sɪ -/; from Latin sidus 'asterism, star'), also called a sidereal orbital period, is the time that Earth or another planetary body takes to orbit the Sun once with respect to the fixed stars. Hence, for Earth, it is also the time taken for the Sun to return to the same position ...
Kepler used his two first laws to compute the position of a planet as a function of time. His method involves the solution of a transcendental equation called Kepler's equation. The procedure for calculating the heliocentric polar coordinates (r,θ) of a planet as a function of the time t since perihelion, is the following five steps: