What is the right ascension of the earth?

Answer 1

"Right Ascension" is a coordinate in one of the main celestial coordinate systems.

It is measured eastward along the "celestial equator".

The units of measurement are hours, minutes and seconds.

Those units are used because the "celestial sphere" appears to rotate once each day.

Each hour is the equivalent of 15 degrees.

The zero or starting point for right ascension is the "Vernal Equinox". It may seem odd to refer to the Vernal Equinox as the starting point of a coordinate system.

The Vernal Equinox is actually a point in space. This point in space is occupied by the Sun at the time we call the Vernal Equinox.

You can think of Right Ascension as being the equivalent of the Earth's meridians projected out into space.

Answer 2

Right ascension and declination (astronomical) are terms for the two coordinate systems used to map out the position of objects in the night sky (the celestial sphere) when using the equatorial coordinate system. They are similar to longitude and latitude used on maps and globes of the Earth. Right ascension is measured east/west in hours, minutes, and seconds, with 24 hours being equivalent to a the full circle of the sky. Declination is measured in degrees north and south of the celestial equator with an object on the celestial equator being declination of 0° and an object at the celestial north pole or south pole having a declination of +90 and −90° respectively

Answer 3

"Right ascension" is one of the coordinates used to describe the location of objects

in the sky as they appear from earth. The earth itself isn't an object that we see in

the sky, so this coordinate system isn't used to describe its location. That would be

something like asking "How far west is your road map ?"