<p>this is my first post on the Astronomy stack exchange site. Please let me know how this question is based on y'all's generally accepted criteria for a good question as well as possible improvements.</p>

<p>In my AP comp sci class we were given pretty much total freedom to come up with a project, I remembered hearing about it being possible to calculate a person's position or the position a picture was taken based on time of day and the position of the Sun, that is, longitudinal and latitudinal position. For the picture, I heard Sun position was determined through some implementation of shadows in the picture. I thought this was cool and decided to look into it. I found an <a href="http://jsoc.stanford.edu/doc/keywords/Chris_Russel/http___www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu_personnel_russell_papers_gct1.html_.pdf" rel="nofollow">article written by a prominent UCLA physicist</a> and a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Position_of_the_Sun" rel="nofollow">well-researched Wikipedia page</a>. I understand what the Wikipedia page requires in regards to values for calculations and what the equations calculate, but I do not understand how to implement them to find longitudinal and latitudinal location, nor do I understand why it has rectangular equatorial coordinates as that is not included in the three-step explanation in the Wikipedia page intro at the top.</p>

<p>For the UCLA report, I understand none of it except for the matrix mathematics and manipulations, and I'm sketchy on those at best, but I do not understand all the coordinate systems that it mentions nor how to implement them to achieve my objective.</p>

<p>So my question comes down to this: Can anyone clarify the equations, their purpose, their implementation, how to convert an answer to longitude and latitude for either the Wikipedia page or the UCLA report?</p>

<p>OR</p>

<p>If you can explain how to find the latitude and longitude of a picture or person. If you choose to explain, I do need equations or an explanation that I can turn into equations.</p>

<p>Please suggest question revisions and whether this should be posted on a different Stackexchange forum. Thanks.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-05-16T01:18:19.977Z
Sorry about lack of tags, dont know what else could be put in here
Ungeheuer
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-05-16T15:40:42.570Z
This is rather unspecific. You appear to be asking someone to do your project...
ProfRob
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-05-16T21:55:30.387Z
far from it @RobJeffries. I spent the past few flu-riddled days trying to understand UCLA research paper and googling various ways to achieve my goal, and I have reached a point where I am so frustrated I am considering changing my project and doing something different. I apologize if the question would it sound as such. What wording/paragraphs give it that air?
Ungeheuer
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-05-16T21:58:21.463Z
And I do believe I now understand the calculations outlined in the Wikipedia page, my only issue is taking the answers and making that final conversion to latitude and longitude because it does not seem to be outlined in the Wiki page. I merely want someone to either clarify the final conversion step to latitude and longitude from the Wiki calculations, help me understand the UCLA research paper, or provide me with an answer of their own through use of equations, or a non-equation explanation that I can turn into an equation without too much trouble.
Ungeheuer
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-05-17T17:43:04.907Z
Alright, So then all I need is right ascension equation(s), declination equation(s), az-el equations, convert one of them to rectangular coordinates, rotate and then go to sphereical? And sphereical would be lat and long right? Also, what would inputs be? Im very sorry for this, I thought I had this down, but guess not. @barrycarter
Ungeheuer
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-05-17T19:35:38.533Z
@barrycarter thank you, you are a god among men. I really want to pursue this idea instead of building a web cralwer and car simulator. I will let you know if the article helps me
Ungeheuer
<the-sun>
Finding Latitude and Longitude of a person or of where a picture was taken
Ungeheuer
# Finding Latitude and Longitude of a person or of where a picture was taken

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-05-16)

this is my first post on the Astronomy stack exchange site. Please let me know how this question is based on y'all's generally accepted criteria for a good question as well as possible improvements.

In my AP comp sci class we were given pretty much total freedom to come up with a project, I remembered hearing about it being possible to calculate a person's position or the position a picture was taken based on time of day and the position of the Sun, that is, longitudinal and latitudinal position. For the picture, I heard Sun position was determined through some implementation of shadows in the picture. I thought this was cool and decided to look into it. I found an [article written by a prominent UCLA physicist](http://jsoc.stanford.edu/doc/keywords/Chris_Russel/http___www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu_personnel_russell_papers_gct1.html_.pdf) and a [well-researched Wikipedia page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Position_of_the_Sun). I understand what the Wikipedia page requires in regards to values for calculations and what the equations calculate, but I do not understand how to implement them to find longitudinal and latitudinal location, nor do I understand why it has rectangular equatorial coordinates as that is not included in the three-step explanation in the Wikipedia page intro at the top.

For the UCLA report, I understand none of it except for the matrix mathematics and manipulations, and I'm sketchy on those at best, but I do not understand all the coordinate systems that it mentions nor how to implement them to achieve my objective.

So my question comes down to this: Can anyone clarify the equations, their purpose, their implementation, how to convert an answer to longitude and latitude for either the Wikipedia page or the UCLA report?

OR

If you can explain how to find the latitude and longitude of a picture or person. If you choose to explain, I do need equations or an explanation that I can turn into equations.

Please suggest question revisions and whether this should be posted on a different Stackexchange forum. Thanks.

**Tags:** the-sun

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Sorry about lack of tags, dont know what else could be put in here  
> **username_1**: This is rather unspecific. You appear to be asking someone to do your project...  
> **username_0**: far from it @RobJeffries. I spent the past few flu-riddled days trying to understand UCLA research paper and googling various ways to achieve my goal, and I have reached a point where I am so frustrated I am considering changing my project and doing something different. I apologize if the question would it sound as such. What wording/paragraphs give it that air?  
> **username_0**: And I do believe I now understand the calculations outlined in the Wikipedia page, my only issue is taking the answers and making that final conversion to latitude and longitude because it does not seem to be outlined in the Wiki page. I merely want someone to either clarify the final conversion step to latitude and longitude from the Wiki calculations, help me understand the UCLA research paper, or provide me with an answer of their own through use of equations, or a non-equation explanation that I can turn into an equation without too much trouble.  
> **username_0**: Alright, So then all I need is right ascension equation(s), declination equation(s), az-el equations, convert one of them to rectangular coordinates, rotate and then go to sphereical? And sphereical would be lat and long right? Also, what would inputs be? Im very sorry for this, I thought I had this down, but guess not. @barrycarter  
> **username_0**: @barrycarter thank you, you are a god among men. I really want to pursue this idea instead of building a web cralwer and car simulator. I will let you know if the article helps me  

---

## 0 answers

