Charlie Hubbard wrote:
On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 10:20:50 -0500, Stephen Paul
wrote:


Right ascension is derived from the fact that as you face south, and
look up to the might sky, the stars appear to move from your left hand
side to your right hand side. This scale is in hours, to represent the
24 hours of Earth's rotation. Each hour is 60 degrees of arc, each
degree 60 minutes arc, and each minute 60 seconds of arc. As a
reference, the moon covers 30 minutes of arc (1/2 degree).


One, small correction here. Each hour of right ascension is equal to
15 degrees of arc (15 degrees * 24 hours = 360 degrees). I'm sure the
original author knows this and the above was something akin to a typo.
I hesitated to point it out at all and wouldn't have had the post been
directed to a seasoned observer but I can see where this would be a
point of confusion to someone new to the hobby. Better to clear it up
from the get-go.



Absolutely... thanks for the correction!!