Hour angle is paired with the declination to fully specify the location of a point on the celestial sphere in the equatorial coordinate system. The local hour angle (LHA) of an object in the observer's sky is where LHA is the local hour angle of the object, LST is the local sidereal time, formula_3 is the object's right ascension, GST is Greenwich sidereal time and formula_4 is the observer's longitude (positive east from the prime meridian). These angles can be measured in time (24 hours to a circle) or in degrees (360 degrees to a circle)— one or the other, not both.
Decimal degrees radius of the semi-major axis of the Earth at the equator is 6,378,137.0 meters resulting in a circumference of 40,075,161.2 meters. The equator is divided into 360 degrees of longitude, so each degree at the equator represents 111,319.9 meters or approximately 111.32 km. As one moves away from the equator towards a pole, however, one degree of longitude is multiplied by the cosine of the latitude, decreasing the distance, approaching zero at the pole. The number of decimal places required for a particular precision at the equator is: A value in decimal degrees to a precision of 4 decimal places