What are the Sun's right ascension and declination at the vernal equinox?

Question

What are the Sun's right ascension and declination at the vernal equinox?

Answer 1

By definition, 0:00:00 RA and 0° declination. The vernal equinox (in the northern hemisphere) is the point where the sun crosses the equator moving north, so the declination is 0°. And RA is defined as starting at the March equinox.

However, since star atlases are not updated every year, all the current ones use 2000.0 coordinates. Precession brings the RA of the 2008 equinox  to about 23:59:28 in 2000.0 coordinates.

Answer 2

The Right Ascension and Declination of the Sun at the summer solstice are 6h and +23.5 degrees, respectively.

At the autumnal equinox, the Sun is found at RA=12h and Dec=0 degrees

At winter solstice, the Sun is at 18h and -23.5 degrees.

At the vernal equinox, the Sun is at 0h and 0 degrees.

Answer 3

According to the definition of RA and Dec:

RA = 180°  (as RA is measured from the direction of vernal equinox)

Dec = 0° (as the sun is always inside the ecliptic plane)

Answer 4

RA:  Convert 94º 51.8' to time.  [6 hours 19 min. 27 sec.]

Declination:  0º.