2025 09 General Meeting What's Wrong with Right Ascension(RA)? Jeff Adkins Los Medanos College скачать в хорошем качестве

2025 09 General Meeting What's Wrong with Right Ascension(RA)? Jeff Adkins Los Medanos College

We’ve all seen star map coordinates in RA and dec format, but what do they mean? Why is RA in hours and dec in degrees? Why does RA count backward in the sky? And what do other coordinate systems have to do with it? In this presentation you will learn about celestial coordinate systems including Altitude, Azimuth, Equatorial (RA and dec), heliocentric and galactic coordinates, and how they relate to your telescope. Jeff Adkins is (for now) a high school and community college astronomy and physics teacher. He teaches at Deer Valley High School in Antioch and Los Medanos College in Pittsburg. In his career he has had lots of astronomy experiences including using giant telescopes on observatory mountains at Kitt Peak National Observatory, the Spitzer Infrared Space Telescope, and once met Carl Sagan. He is a past recipient of the AUSD Teacher of the Year and the Joe Disch award here at MDAS. He wrote the astronomy textbook his classes use, and recently completed an abridged version suitable for one-semester classes. He lives with his wife Allison in Antioch. What's Up Member Presentation Yosemite and Barcroft Adventures- Tara Mostofi