Glossary term: Azimuth
Description: In a horizontal coordinate system, azimuth refers to the direction (angle along the horizon) at which the object is found. It is measured in degrees starting from the north and towards the east. Azimuth values cover a full circle from 0 degrees to 360 degrees. In other words, if you draw an imaginary arc on the celestial sphere from the object to the horizon and perpendicular to the horizon, the azimuth will tell you the location of the point where this arc meets the horizon. An object located directly north would have 0 degrees azimuth, an object directly east would have 90 degrees azimuth and so on. In older textbooks used in multiple countries, the convention was to start measuring the azimuth from the south towards the west. Thus, azimuth values in those textbooks would be shifted by 180 degrees.
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Term and definition status: This term and its definition have been approved by a research astronomer and a teacher
The OAE Multilingual Glossary is a project of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) in collaboration with the IAU Office of Astronomy Outreach (OAO). The terms and definitions were chosen, written and reviewed by a collective effort from the OAE, the OAE Centers and Nodes, the OAE National Astronomy Education Coordinators (NAECs) and other volunteers. You can find a full list of credits here. All glossary terms and their definitions are released under a Creative Commons CC BY-4.0 license and should be credited to "IAU OAE".
