On Tue, 1 May 2001, Steve Lelievre wrote:

> Gianni wrote:
> > As in almost all Web sites,  also you take as positive the Longitudes for
> > places   West of  Greenwich.

> > The Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomic Almanac (USNO 1992) at page
> > 203 affirms:
> > "The geocentric longitude is defined by the angle between the reference
> > (or zero) meridian and the meridian of point p, measured EASTWARD
> > around the Earth from 0 to 360 deg (IAU, 1983, p.47)   "

> for our purposes a range -180 to +180 is more convenient than 0 to 360,
> especially when trying to visualise what's going on. For instance, in the
> 
> Steve

Steve, I agree with your point that -180 to +180 is more convenient, and
is also more common usage, I believe. However, if I understood the above
correctly, the more significant difference between your convention and
that espoused by Gianni, is that you are have positive longitude West of
the Prime Meridian, rather than East...

Dave
37.3 N 121.9 W

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