Apparent Position

This reference article is an automatically generated stub. As such it may contain serious errors.
You can help ExoDictionary by expanding or correcting it.

This autostub has not yet had its initial copyediting proof and may contain significant formatting and even factual errors. You can improve Exodictionary by cleaning up the page markup and verifying that the definition is correct and then removing this tag.

Apparent Position

The position on the celestial sphere at which a heavenly body (or a space vehicle) would be seen from the center of the earth at a particular time. Compare astrometric position.
The apparent position of a body is displaced from the true position at the time of observation by the motion of the body during the time it takes light to travel from the body to the earth (see planetary aberration) and by aberration.
Most ephemerides tabulate apparent position of the sun, moon, and planets.

References

This article is based on NASA's Dictionary of Technical Terms for Aerospace Use