def PHMS2RA (rast,  sep=":"):
    """
    Convert a right ascension string to degrees
    
    return RA in degrees

    * rast = RA string as "hh:mm:ss.s"
    * sep  = sympol to use to separate components instead of ":"
    """
    ################################################################
    pp = rast.split(sep)
    if len(pp)>0:
        hour = int(pp[0])
    else:
        hour = 0
    if len(pp)>1:
        min = int(pp[1])
    else:
        min = 0
    if len(pp)>2:
        ssec = float(pp[2])
    else:
        ssec = 0.0
    ra =  hour + min/60.0 + ssec/3600.0
    return ra*15.0
    # end PHMS2RA