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To: petuniasevan
Hmm. My solid geometry was never so good, but I take it that the ecliptic of the solar system is roughly at right angles to the galactic plane?

--Boris

10 posted on 08/27/2003 6:26:01 AM PDT by boris (Education is always painful; pain is always educational.)
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To: boris
Not only is the plane of the solar system (the ecliptic) tilted with respect to the plane of the Milky Way (galactic equator) but the Earth's axis is also tilted with respect to the ecliptic.

The north pole of the solar system (north ecliptic pole) lies about 23.5 deg away from polaris in the constellation Draco (18h 00m R.A.) and the North pole of our Galaxy (north galactic pole) lies about 27 deg away from Polaris in the constellation Coma Berenices (12h 51m R.A.).

Thus the Galactic Equator is tilted 62.6 degrees with respect to the plane of the Ecliptic.

A good way to see this is either to look at sky maps in a good star atlas or obtain a good astronomy software program. I use Starry Night Pro; it costs $$$. There are freeware and shareware programs out there; here is a great free program called StarCalc.

http://www.relex.ru/~zalex/main.htm
11 posted on 08/27/2003 1:35:56 PM PDT by petuniasevan (Death and taxes are both certain, but death at least isn't an annual event.)
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