logo

Video encyclopedia

Ecliptic

3:30

The Ecliptic: Crash Course Kids #37.2

1:06

The Ecliptic

2:56

Exciting Ecliptics Explained | Star Gazers

0:49

Plane of the Ecliptic Tilted on Celestial Sphere

2:37

Lesson Two Lecture Two - The Ecliptic & Meridian

The ecliptic is the mean plane in the sky that the Sun follows over the course of a year; it is the basis of the ecliptic coordinate system. It is the plane of this path, which is coplanar with Earth's orbit around the Sun . The ecliptic is not normally noticeable from Earth's surface because Earth rotates, carrying the observer through the cycles of sunrise and sunset, which obscure the Sun's apparent motion against the background of fixed stars.
    • Sun's apparent motion 

    • Relationship to the celestial equator 

    • Obliquity of the ecliptic 

    • Plane of the Solar System 

    • Celestial reference plane 

    • Eclipses 

    • Equinoxes and solstices 

    • In the constellations 

    • Astrology