Latitude Latitude In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the north–south position of a point on the Earth's surface. Latitude is an angle (defined below) which ranges from 0° at the Equator to 90° (North or South) at the poles. Lines of constant latitude, or "parallels", run east–west as circles parallel to the equator. Latitude is used together with longitude to specify the precise location of features on the surface of the Earth. On its own, the term latitude should be taken to be the "geodetic latitude" as defined below. Briefly, geodetic latitude at a point is the angle
Gaithersburg Latitude Observatory one of the four original observatories built by 1899 — tracking the degree of "wobble" occurring on the earth's north-south axis and resultant variation of latitude. The Observatory — along with observatories in Cincinnati, Ohio; Ukiah, California; Mizusawa, Japan; Charjui in Russian Turkestan; and Carloforte, Sardina, Italy — performed in concert to carry out a coordinated program of star observation designed to investigate and calculate the degree of earth "wobble" or latitude variation. On the grounds of the Gaithersburg Latitude Observatory stands a plaque that reads: This small framed structure played a key role in the scientific investigation of the