1 Math Introduction
I’m going to start with a small bit of trigonometry, both the trigonometry in
the euclidean plane and spherical trigonometry. I’m sure you know enough
about basic formulas for sines and cosines, therefore I’m not going to bother
you with them. I just want to mention two important theorems for both types
of triangle, being law of sines and law of cosines. You might be familiar with
the euclidean version of them
a b c
= = , c2 = a2 + b2 − 2ab cos γ.
sin α sin β sin γ
Generally, if the spherical triangle is small enough, you can use those formulas
for a normal triangle as well. However, if you want to be precise, you have to
use their following modification (see the figure with sph. triangle below)
sin a sin b sin c
= = , cos c = cos a cos b + sin a sin b cos γ.
sin α sin β sin γ
And this is all the math you need to know.
2 Coordinate systems
2.1 Horizontal coordinate system (H)
It uses the plane of local horizon as the fundamental plane. The pole in the upper
hemisphere is called zenith, the opposite one’s nadir. The first coordinate is the
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Figure 2: Spherical trinagle
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Figure 3: Horizontal coordinate system
picture. You can see that equatorial coordinates of a star are approx. constant
over relatively long time periods (let say years, tens of years). Basically they
are constant as long as the effects of precession, abberation, paralax or proper
motion are not significant for the problem. Alternatively, one can use so called
hour angle t as the second coordinate. However, this coordinate varies with
the period one sidereal day. It is the angle between the local meridian and the
great circle determined by the northern celestial pole and the object. Let us
define the hour angle of the vernal equinox point to be the local sidereal time
Θ. Then we can easily relate the hour angle of an object with the right ascension
as Θ = t + α (recall the definition of α and draw the picture - it’s trivial!).
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Figure 4: Equatorial coordinate system
3 Transformation of coordinates
In the spherical astronomy, one very often needs to switch between the hor-
izontal, equatorial and ecliptical coordinates (in case of galactical and super-
galactical it is rather important to know what it basically is, transformations
are usually not required). Therefore I’m going to derive the transformations
H → Q, Q → H, let say that’s all we need. However, you SHOULDN’T mem-
orize the equations which I shall derive now. What you SHOULD memorize
are the spherical law of sines and cosines, that’s really all you need. In the
following, we will use t and z - I hope that now it is simple for you to convert
them to α and h.
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3.1 Transformation Q → H
Remember, that all you need to switch between H and Q is the following tri-
angle: Point P is the northern celestial pole, Z is zenith, H is an object. φ
thus
cos z = sin δ sin φ + cos δ cos φ cos t.
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And we are almost ready! If we know Q coordinates and φ, we can easily
calculate z from the last equation. And if we know z, we can find out A from
the previous one! However, there’s something more as you might guess, since
the azimuth isn’t determined uniquely by that equation (functions arcsine and
arccosine have two solutions on the interval 0 to 360). On the other hand, z
is determined uniquely, because it lies in the interval -90 to 90 and here those
functions have only one root. Anyway, we must write the second law of cosines
for this triangle
cos(90 − δ) = cos(90 − φ) cos(z) + sin(90 − φ) sin z cos(180 − A)
thus (cos(180 − A) = − cos A)
sin δ = sin φ cos z − cos φ sin z cos A.
Let me substitute for cos z from the first law of cosines, then we have
sin δ = sin2 φ sin δ + sin φ cos δ cos φ cos t − cos φ sin z cos A.
Now, important thing to realize, we can put the first term from the right hand
side to the left hand side:
sin δ 1 − sin2 φ = sin φ cos δ cos φ cos t − cos φ sin z cos A,
thus
sin δ cos2 φ = sin φ cos δ cos φ cos t − cos φ sin z cos A.
Now we can divide the whole equation by cos φ and obtain
sin δ cos φ = sin φ cos δ cos t − sin z cos A.
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Problem 1 Determine the altitude h and azimuth A (measured from south
westwards) of Thuban (α Dra) for the observer at φ = 59◦ 560 3000 at Θ =
16h 24m 33s of the local sidereal time. The equatorial coordinates of Thuban
are α = 14h 01m 57s and δ = 64◦ 480 0800 .
cos z = cos(90 − h) = sin h = sin δ sin φ + cos δ cos φ cos t → h = 73◦ 010 3600 .
3.2 Transformation H → Q
This time we can use this possibility how to apply the law of cosine on that
triangle (same one as before basically):
And we’re here again! The hour angle is not determined uniquely, hence we
must introduce one more equation (again the same law of cosines as before)
thus
cos z = sin δ sin φ + cos δ cos φ cos t.
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Here we can substitute from the first boxed equation in this subsection for sin δ:
cos z = sin2 φ cos z − cos φ sin z cos A sin φ + cos δ cos φ cos t.
Again, we do the same trick with putting the first term to the left:
and therefore
cos δ cos t = cos z cos φ + sin z cos A sin φ.
Hence the complete transformation H → Q reads
Again for the azimuth measured from the north we would have
You must pay attention to the quadrant where t lies, ok? Same as the previous
case: firstly calculate δ, then sine and cosine of t. And then decide.
Then we have
sin z sin A
sin t = = −0.70713,
cos δ
cos z cos φ + sin z cos A sin φ
cos t = = 0.70709.
cos δ
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Sine is negative and cosine positive, hence it lies in the 4th quadrant and
t = 315◦ .
4 Time
We have already defined one kind of time and that was local sidereal time
Θ (recall the definition!). Now we define the apprent solar time Tv (tempus
solare verum) to be the hour angle of the Sun. However, the Sun doesn’t move
continually on the sky and hence this is not very convenient for measuring
the time. Therefore we shall define the mean solar time Tm (tempus solare
medium) as the hour angle of so-called mean Sun - the point which moves
continually along the celestial equator with a period of one sidereal year. Tm
and Tv are related by a coefficient τ where
τ = Tm − Tv .
τ should be given. Last but not least, we define the zone time, the time which
is commonly used. As you know, the Earth is divided in 24 zones. The zone
time Tz for a given zone is given by the mean solar time for the center of the
zone. For instance the time GMT +1 (CR) is the mean solar time for the east
longitude 15◦ . LT time is the mean solar time for the longitude 30◦ .