cartesian_to_spherical

astropy.coordinates.cartesian_to_spherical(x, y, z)

Converts 3D rectangular cartesian coordinates to spherical polar coordinates.

Note that the resulting angles are latitude/longitude or elevation/azimuthal form. I.e., the origin is along the equator rather than at the north pole.

Note

This function simply wraps functionality provided by the CartesianRepresentation and SphericalRepresentation classes. In general, for both performance and readability, we suggest using these classes directly. But for situations where a quick one-off conversion makes sense, this function is provided.

Parameters:

x : scalar, array-like, or Quantity

The first cartesian coordinate.

y : scalar, array-like, or Quantity

The second cartesian coordinate.

z : scalar, array-like, or Quantity

The third cartesian coordinate.

Returns:

r : Quantity

The radial coordinate (in the same units as the inputs).

lat : Quantity

The latitude in radians

lon : Quantity

The longitude in radians