Astrophysics (Index)About

celestial sphere

(the sky in considered as a sphere surrounding the observer)

The celestial sphere is the sky thought of as an imaginary sphere around an observer (basically, around the Earth, or for some purposes, around the Sun), representing the position of stars and astronomical bodies the observer sees when looking in different directions, upward and around. The portion of the sky hidden "under" the Earth is easily considered a hidden part of the same sphere. Celestial coordinate systems, such as equatorial coordinate system (with its latitude- and longitude-like coordinates, declination and right ascension), can be used to identify the position of stars and other objects on the celestial sphere.


(astronomy,sky,coordinates)
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_sphere
https://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/C/Celestial+Sphere
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/eclip.html#c3
https://www.phy.olemiss.edu/~luca/astr/Topics-Introduction/Celestial-N.html
https://www.open.edu/openlearn/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=84334§ion=_unit1.3.3

Referenced by pages:
aberration
adaptive optics (AO)
Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT)
angular distance
angular power spectrum
angular resolution
Anticenter Shell
appulse
Arakelian Catalog (Ark)
arcsecond (arcsec)
asterism
astrograph
astrometry
astronomical object
AXIS
Baade's Window
baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO)
Bayer designation
beam
BINGO
blind survey
Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME)
Catalog of Circumpolar Stars (Groombridge)
celestial coordinate system
celestial equator
celestial event
celestial meridian
celestial pole
celestial reference frame
Chandler wobble
chopping mirror
CMB anisotropies
cold spot
Compton telescope
constellation
continuous viewing zone (CVZ)
cosmic microwave background (CMB)
counterpart
cylindrical telescope
data cube
declination (dec)
destriping
diffuse emission
dirty image
double star
drift scan
Earth rotation synthesis
ecliptic
ecliptic coordinate system
elevation range
epicycle
epoch
equatorial coordinate system (EQ)
equinox
Exo-S
extended source
Field of Streams
field of view (FOV)
fixed star
Fsky (fsky)
galactic anticenter
galactic coordinate system (GCS)
galactic north
galactic plane
Giant GRB Ring
Gould's Belt
gravitational wave (GW)
Gravity Probe B (GP-B)
guide star (GS)
Guide Star Catalog (GSC)
HEALPix
heliocentric system
Hellings and Downs curve
HI Jodrell All-Sky Survey (HIJASS)
HIPASS
Holmberg radius (RH)
horizontal coordinate system
ICRF
intensity mapping (IM)
interferometer
interstellar medium (ISM)
J2000.0 equinox
K2
Limber approximation
Lockman hole
Magellanic Stream
magnetic energy spectrum
MAXIMA
meridian
meteoroid
Milky Way (MW)
moving-cluster method
N-point function
neutrino hotspot
occulting bar
opposition
optical double
optical transient (OT)
photometry
plane of the sky (POS)
plate measuring machine (APM)
plate scale
pointing error (PE)
polarization
polarization modes
position angle (PA)
positional astronomy
projected separation
proper motion (PM)
provisional designation
proximity effect
PSF fitting
radio source (RS)
RESOLVE­
right ascension (RA)
Sachs-Wolfe effect (SWE)
scan speed
sidereal
SIMSTACK
solar apex
solar day
solar system object (SSO)
solar time
solid angle (Ω)
solstice
spaxel
spherical harmonics
star
stellar association
Stephan's Quintet
Stokes parameters
supergalactic coordinate system
superluminal motion
supernova survey
surface brightness (SB)
surface density (Σ)
survey field
survey-based designator
synoptic
time-ordered data (TOD)
Toomre sequence
transient (AT)
transient astronomy
transit
transit telescope
u-v plane
visibility
Westerhout Radio Survey (W)
X-ray pulsar
X-ray source
zenith
zodiacal light

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