Reckoning / Sky & sea
Room · wave 3
Sky & sea
Where you are and what time it is were once the same question, answered from the sky. This room covers the coordinates of the Earth and the heavens, the shortest way across a sphere, the several kinds of time, and the planets and the band of constellations they move through.
Latitude and longitude
A globe you can turn and tap, and why a minute of latitude is about one nautical mile.
Great circle and rhumb line
The shortest route against the constant course, drawn on two different map projections.
Kinds of time
Apparent, mean, zone and sidereal time, live, and the equation of time across the year.
The celestial sphere
Right ascension and declination, the ecliptic, and why the signs no longer match the constellations.
Planets and their names
Symbols, gods and discoverers, and an orrery showing where each planet is today.
Names from the sky
The gods behind the planets, moons, days of the week, months and chemical elements.