Quote:
Originally Posted by tony873004
If a person said that the hands of a clock move clockwise, would you consider that statement to be meaningless and wrong as well?
I'm inclined to agree with Cevlakohn. Granted, specifying clockwise is meanless without some sort of reference viewing direction. But in almost every instance, when we use the term clockwise, the viewing direction is implied. And the English language has many examples where implication is permitted when stating the obvious. (Go to the store = You go to the store, etc.)
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I would tend to agree on this, without an explicit reference orientation north is up, and you'd watch the solar system from above, ie. from the north.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tony873004
In the case of the solar system, the reference viewing direction is implied as well. I've seen many, many orbital diagrams of our solar system, and the moon systems within our solar system, and I don't ever think I've seen one looking towards the Sun's south pole. The implication here is "as viewed from above" because that's just how we draw orbits.
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Actually that would make you look towards the Sun's south pole in all of them. Ok the Sun's in the way so you don't see a lot of it, bt you're definitly looking towards it. 
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