Measure Milky Way inclination by hand

Hello!
I have not many experience of night sky observation.
I want to know that
HOW to estimate the inclination of the Milky Way to the ecliptic and
celestial equator by human hand?

from Bzoodie

In article , Bzoodie Zolio wrote:
Hello!
I have not many experience of night sky observation.
I want to know that
HOW to estimate the inclination of the Milky Way to the ecliptic and
celestial equator by human hand?

from Bzoodie

Oh, a neat question!

You can get a general idea by:
- looking toward the area where the two planes intersect
- holding up a couple of strips of cardboard, joined at
a point by an eyelet or thumbtack or something
- aligning each cardboard strip with visible markers of
each plane: for example, with some widely-separated
planets for the ecliptic, and for the Milky Way,
with the middle of its glowing band.
- then measure the angle between the cardboard strips.

The measurement will be more accurate if you can choose widely-separated
points along the Milky Way band for alignment. 90 degrees or so
should be best.

As for any two planes, we see the Milky Way and ecliptic
intersect at two points. One of them conveniently in the
evening sky now, in eastern Taurus a couple of degrees west of M35.
So if you are in a place where the winter Milky Way's glow is visible,
you should be able to do this visually.

For the Milky Way-to-equator angle, you could take advantage
(assuming you're in the northern hemisphere) of the
fact that everybody knows where the pole is, and do it a
different way:

- look at the area where the Milky Way comes closest to the
north celestial pole, in Cassiopeia. Either measure that
separation (in which case the inclination is 90 degrees minus that)
or note from a map the declination of the northernmost part of the
middle of the Milky Way band (in which case the inclination is
equal to that declination angle). Or, you could...
- find the point where the Milky Way crosses the equator,
in Monoceros a bit east of Orion. Measure the angle between
the Milky Way midline, and the meridian through that point
(e.g. align the cardboard strip with that point and Polaris).
The inclination to the equator is 90 degrees minus that angle.

Cheers

Stuart

In article ,
(Stuart Levy) writes:
- find the point where the Milky Way crosses the equator,
in Monoceros a bit east of Orion.

All good suggestions, but just one caution... The bright stars in
Orion are mostly in "Gould's Belt," which is inclined about 20
degrees (from memory -- could be wrong) to the Galactic plane. The
actual intersection between the Galactic plane and the equator is, as
Stuart says, in Monoceros. I make it about 1/3 of the way from
Sirius to Procyon.

In general, visual methods of defining the Galactic plane will never
be terribly accurate because of the presence of obscuring material
(dust). It's still a fine idea to do the exercises Stuart describes,
though, to gain an intuitive understanding of the relationships.
Just don't go insisting that the standard values are wrong if yours
disagree by a few degrees. :-)

--
Steve Willner Phone 617-495-7123
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
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