How does one determine the position of the sun along the ecliptic observationally?

[Citra]

How does one determine the position of the Sun along the ecliptic observationally?

Does anybody know OR have a resource I can look at?

Thank you.

 

[Helio]

You might want to download (free) Stellarium. It has a tremendous amount of information, including the ecliptic. [Press F1 to get the menu for what graphics you want to see, including the ecliptic.]

 

[Citra]

Digital resources like that abound. Some which will give me the exact degree that the sun is along the ecliptic -- instead of a display of the stars of the zodiac which it moves through.

But what if they are lying? How can I determine what that information is for myself??

 

[Helio]

Digital resources like that abound. Some which will give me the exact degree that the sun is along the ecliptic -- instead of a display of the stars of the zodiac which it moves through.

But what if they are lying? How can I determine what that information is for myself??

Well, when I consider if a lie is before me, then I ask myself what purpose would they have to try and deceive me. If there is no reason, they the nest question is whether or not their information is accurate to the level they claim.

Since, as you note, there are resources that abound, then you have a means to test one model against several others. I think I recently mentioned that the Shuttle flights had 5 computers and they compared their calculations with one another, then if one or two were different, the majority result would be used as the odds favored that result.

Orbital equations have the advantage of being retrodictive. You can reverse the time clock and see if these equations are accurate in either time direction, as they would have to be accurate in both directions to claim any accuracy.

 

[rod]

"But what if they are lying? How can I determine what that information is for myself??" from post #3.

Helio is correct in post #4, this is easy to test. I use Stellarium 0.20.3 and Starry Night Pro Plus 8. This morning I was out viewing the waning crescent Moon (plenty of earthshine visible too) and Venus. The Moon in Virgo along with the bright star, Spica. Venus in Libra. The software provides a sky view for my location and time, 0617 EST. I could see the stars of Virgo and Libra as well, e.g. Zubenelgenbui in Libra That is a simple visual test that shows the software sky view is accurate for my location, date, and time. Sunrise local time for me near 0715 EST. The Sun is in Ophiuchus, you can see stars in that constellation too rising before the Sun like the position of Venus and the Moon this morning. Simple visual tests of the software like this is easy to do. Before the Sun came up in Ophiuchus, the brighter star Ras Alhague is visible in the east.

The issue raised here and question in post #3, does the concern of *lying software* used that supports the heliocentric solar system, is this because of flat earth videos teaching astronomy on the Internet?

One of the great evidences that shows the Earth is round and spinning, is the ability of modern software to accurately predict rise, transit, and set times for various objects in the sky and show the position of the Sun in various constellations along the ecliptic throughout the year that shows the heliocentric solar system is modeled accurately too.