Coordinates
Dorothy Vaughan

Credit: Unknown author
Occupation: Mathematician and Human Computer
Year born: 1910
Research Areas: Computer Programming
Katherine Johnson

Credit: NASA
Occupation: Mathematician
Year born: 1918
Research Areas: Rocket Flightpaths, Trajectories, Orbital Mechanics
"I loved going to work every single day"
Coordinate Systems
We use coordinate systems to identify the position of a point on a surface. When we talk about coordinates, we usually think of geographical coordinates on the surface of the Earth. However, we can use similar systems to locate objects in the night sky. We call these celestial coordinates. When we think about the night sky in this way, we imagine it as a spherical surface around the Earth.