# Cartesian to cartographic problem

**URL:** <https://community.cesium.com/t/cartesian-to-cartographic-problem/194>\
**Category:** CesiumJS\
**Created:** [December 27, 2012, 1:24pm UTC](https://community.cesium.com/t/cartesian-to-cartographic-problem/194 "2012-12-27T13:24:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Tamy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Tamy](https://community.cesium.com/u/Tamy)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2012, 1:24pm UTC](https://community.cesium.com/t/cartesian-to-cartographic-problem/194/1 "2012-12-27T13:24:55Z")

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Hello!

I have this code:

function cartesianToCartographic©{

console.log©;

return ellipsoid.cartesianToCartographic©;

}

var camera = scene.getCamera();

console.log(cartesianToCartographic(camera.position));

console.log(cartesianToCartographic(camera.direction));

console.log(cartesianToCartographic(camera.up));

and I got this out:

(0, -11409558.32144526, 5704779.16072263)  
(-1.5707963267948966, 0.4649900805134542, 6382419.669168627)  
(0, 0.894427190999916, -0.447213595499958)  
(NaN, NaN, NaN)  
(0, 0.447213595499958, 0.894427190999916)  
(NaN, NaN, NaN)

why can’t I convert (0, 0.894427190999916, -0.447213595499958) or (0, 0.447213595499958, 0.894427190999916)?

Thanks!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![patrick](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/cesium/user_avatar/community.cesium.com/patrick/32/2045_2.png) [@patrick](https://community.cesium.com/u/patrick)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2012, 1:52pm UTC](https://community.cesium.com/t/cartesian-to-cartographic-problem/194/2 "2012-12-27T13:52:40Z")

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Tamy,

This may be addressed in the [scaleToGeodeticSurface branch](https://github.com/AnalyticalGraphicsInc/cesium/tree/scaleToGeodeticSurface), but the Cartesian positions you are trying to convert to Cartographic are very close to the center of Earth. In fact, they are not positions; they are normalized vectors, that is, directions, so I’m not sure that you intend to convert them to Cartographic.

Patrick