What is right ascension?
Right Ascension is the east-west coordinate in some celestial coordinate systems. It is measured eastward around the sky in hours, minutes and seconds. Each hour is the equivalent of 15 degrees. The zero or starting point is the Vernal Equinox. It may seem odd to refer to the Vernal Equinox as the starting point of a coordinate system. The Vernal Equinox is actually a point in space; the point in space accupied by the sun at the moment of… well, the Vernal Equinox. You can think of Right Ascension as being the equivalent of the earth’s meridians projected out into space.
