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Earth's rotation. Earth's rotation or Earth's spin is the rotation of planet Earth around its own axis, as well as changes in the orientation of the rotation axis in space. Earth rotates eastward, in prograde motion. As viewed from the northern polar star Polaris, Earth turns counterclockwise . The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North ...
Direction determination refers to the ways in which a cardinal direction or compass point can be determined in navigation and wayfinding. The most direct method is using a compass ( magnetic compass or gyrocompass ), but indirect methods exist, based on the Sun path (unaided or by using a watch or sundial ), the stars, and satellite navigation.
An azimuth ( / ˈæzəməθ / ⓘ; from Arabic: اَلسُّمُوت, romanized : as-sumūt, lit. 'the directions') [1] is the horizontal angle from a cardinal direction, most commonly north, in a local or observer-centric spherical coordinate system. Mathematically, the relative position vector from an observer ( origin) to a point of interest ...
The prime meridian is the centre of the near side of the Moon. A planetary coordinate system (also referred to as planetographic, planetodetic, or planetocentric) [1] [2] is a generalization of the geographic, geodetic, and the geocentric coordinate systems for planets other than Earth. Similar coordinate systems are defined for other solid ...
The horizontal coordinate system is a celestial coordinate system that uses the observer's local horizon as the fundamental plane to define two angles of a spherical coordinate system: altitude and azimuth . Therefore, the horizontal coordinate system is sometimes called the az/el system, [1] the alt/az system, or the alt-azimuth system, among ...
Clockwise. Two-dimensional rotation can occur in two possible directions or senses of rotation. Clockwise motion (abbreviated CW) proceeds in the same direction as a clock 's hands relative to the observer: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back up to the top. The opposite sense of rotation or revolution is (in ...
A geodetic datum or geodetic system (also: geodetic reference datum, geodetic reference system, or geodetic reference frame) is a global datum reference or reference frame for precisely representing the position of locations on Earth or other planetary bodies by means of geodetic coordinates. [1] Datums [note 1] are crucial to any technology or ...
Cardinal directions or cardinal points may sometimes be extended to include vertical position ( elevation, altitude, depth ): north and south, east and west, up and down; or mathematically the six directions of the x-, y-, and z-axes in three-dimensional Cartesian coordinates. Topographic maps include elevation, typically via contour lines .