In
astronomy, a
celestial coordinate system is a
coordinate system for mapping positions in the sky.
There are different celestial coordinate systems each using a
coordinate grid[?] projected on the
celestial sphere, in analogy to the
geographic coordinate system used on the surface of the
Earth. The coordinate systems differ only in their choice of the
fundamental plane[?], which divides the sky into two equal
hemispheres along a
great circle. (The fundamental plane of the geographic system is the Earth's
equator). Each coordinate system is named for its choice of fundamental plane:
This article originates from Jason Harris' Astroinfo which comes along with KStars, a Desktop Planetarium for Linux/KDE. See http://edu.kde.org/kstars/index.phtml
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