# Galactic¶

class astropy.coordinates.Galactic(*args, copy=True, representation_type=None, differential_type=None, **kwargs)[source]

A coordinate or frame in the Galactic coordinate system.

This frame is used in a variety of Galactic contexts because it has as its x-y plane the plane of the Milky Way. The positive x direction (i.e., the l=0, b=0 direction) points to the center of the Milky Way and the z-axis points toward the North Galactic Pole (following the IAU’s 1958 definition [1]). However, unlike the Galactocentric frame, the origin of this frame in 3D space is the solar system barycenter, not the center of the Milky Way.

Parameters: data : BaseRepresentation subclass instance A representation object or None to have no data (or use the coordinate component arguments, see below). l : Angle, optional, must be keyword The Galactic longitude for this object (b must also be given and representation must be None). b : Angle, optional, must be keyword The Galactic latitude for this object (l must also be given and representation must be None). distance : Quantity, optional, must be keyword The Distance for this object along the line-of-sight. pm_l_cosb : Quantity, optional, must be keyword The proper motion in Galactic longitude (including the cos(b) term) for this object (pm_b must also be given). pm_b : Quantity, optional, must be keyword The proper motion in Galactic latitude for this object (pm_l_cosb must also be given). radial_velocity : Quantity, optional, must be keyword The radial velocity of this object. representation_type : BaseRepresentation subclass, str, optional A representation class or string name of a representation class. This sets the expected input representation class, thereby changing the expected keyword arguments for the data passed in. For example, passing representation_type='cartesian' will make the classes expect position data with cartesian names, i.e. x, y, z in most cases. differential_type : BaseDifferential subclass, str, dict, optional A differential class or dictionary of differential classes (currently only a velocity differential with key ‘s’ is supported). This sets the expected input differential class, thereby changing the expected keyword arguments of the data passed in. For example, passing differential_type='cartesian' will make the classes expect velocity data with the argument names v_x, v_y, v_z. copy : bool, optional If True (default), make copies of the input coordinate arrays. Can only be passed in as a keyword argument.

Notes

 [1] Blaauw, A.; Gum, C. S.; Pawsey, J. L.; Westerhout, G. (1960), “The new I.A.U. system of galactic coordinates (1958 revision),” MNRAS, Vol 121, pp.123.

Attributes Summary

Attributes Documentation

default_differential
default_representation
frame_specific_representation_info
name = 'galactic'