Re: Negative Welch-Stetson Index

[jg <jg@jgws.freeisp.co.uk>]

aah@nofs.navy.mil wrote:

> One common problem in sexagesimal conversions is "-0", so beware
> when working close to the celestial equator.

Yep, even professionals can suffer that, it happened somehow on the way
to the first release of the ROSAT 2RXP catalogue, which at first had no
objects between 0 and -1 degrees decl. (they all ended up in 0 to +1),
despite the catalogue being based on decimal degrees (over and above
hexadecimal position based nomenclature).

Cheers

John G