Jump to content

Talk:Ecliptic pole

Page contents not supported in other languages.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

[edit]

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Peer reviewers: Falk6385.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 20:24, 17 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Coordinates

[edit]

Better check out those coordinates. They appear wrong even in principle. SyntheticET (talk) 17:59, 4 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I looked at my software and I believe the article is correct. The north celestial pole is in Ursa Minor. ("The big dipper") This article is about the ecliptic poles, not the celestial ones.
The celestial north and south poles are formed by starting at the center of the earth, drawing a line perpendicular to the earth's equator, and extending that line out into space. The ecliptic poles are formed by starting at the center of the earth and drawing a line perpendicular to the Sun's path around the earth. The earth is tilted 23 degrees on its axis, so those two lines will be at 23 degrees to each other.
I hope that makes sense! I'm learning this stuff myself. :) Mattj2 (talk) 00:11, 3 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Dark sky at ecliptic poles

[edit]

I'm not happy with the statement in this article that it is impossible to have a dark sky at the eclptic poles. The latitude (66.33N) is close to the arctic cirlce, where there can be 24hrs daylight, and conversely some of the 24hrs in twilight, but mostly dark (near the circle, the sun is never far enough below the horizon for part of the day for it to get truly dark). At any given moment on the line of latitude, there will be a point on the opposite side of the planet to the Sun, and therefore in the dark. Alphonsus (talk) 00:29, 27 May 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Alphonsus (talkcontribs)

It says "It is not possible to have the ecliptic poles at the zenith in a dark sky." When an ecliptic pole is at the zenith, the point on Earth at which this happens is at the very "top" or "bottom" of the world relative to the Sun. Therefore there is no "opposite side of the planet". 86.136.150.215 (talk) 21:46, 4 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Galactic coordinates of the ecliptic poles

[edit]

For celestial cartography projects it can be useful to also list the galactic coordinates of the ecliptic poles. If there are no objections, I will add these in the next few days. AstroLynx (talk) 12:04, 1 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]