what is a right declination?

Question

reference the movie CONTACT with jodie foster and matt mchanohay

Answer 1

It's the opposite of a wrong inclination.

Seriously, right ascension and declination are polar coordinates in the celestial sphere, as explained by others.

Right Ascension is given in hours, minutes, and seconds west of the Greenwich Meridian, and Declination is given in degrees, minutes, and seconds north or south of the celestial equator.

In the movie "Contact," Eleanor Arroway is talking on a two-way radio to her assistant, and gives him the Right Ascension and Declination of the radio source she has found, while racing along in her dad's 1965 Chevrolet convertible. She states them in the correct form.

By the way, the Very Large Array in New Mexico is never operated or used for observing from the local facility in the desert. The VLA is operated from an office in Charlottesville, Virginia, and can be operated through the internet from any location. But the desert made a better movie.

NOTE:

I made a mistake, now corrected. Right Ascension is stated in HOURS, minutes, and seconds, being on a scale of 24 hours around the celestial sphere. Declination is on a scale of 180 degrees, 90 above and 90 below the celestial equator. --A.

Answer 2

I think they probably didn't mean right declination. They either meant right ascention OR declination, which is the equatorial system of coordinates used by astronomers to locate stars in the sky. The equatorial system moves with the stars, so every star has the same coordinates all the time, instead of constantly changing (as they do in the alt/az system).

Answer 3

Right Ascension and Declination together make up a stellar coordinate system that is very similar to Earth's Longitude and Latitude. Just as any city on Earth can be located if you know it's longitude and latitude, any star (or galaxy, or whatever) in the sky can be located if you know its right ascension and declination.

Answer 4

You take a step to the left...and then a step to the riiiigghhtt..wait thats the time warp!!

Answer 5

a downslope to the right