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The Celestial Sphere: Ecliptic and Equator

The celestial sphere is an imaginary rotating sphere concentric with the Earth that objects in the sky appear to lie upon. The celestial equator and poles are projected from their geographic equivalents. The intersection of the celestial and ecliptic planes results in the celestial equator and ecliptic. The Sun's apparent yearly path against the stars is called the ecliptic. The equinoxes occur when the Sun is at the intersection points of the equatorial and ecliptic planes.

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452 views

The Celestial Sphere: Ecliptic and Equator

The celestial sphere is an imaginary rotating sphere concentric with the Earth that objects in the sky appear to lie upon. The celestial equator and poles are projected from their geographic equivalents. The intersection of the celestial and ecliptic planes results in the celestial equator and ecliptic. The Sun's apparent yearly path against the stars is called the ecliptic. The equinoxes occur when the Sun is at the intersection points of the equatorial and ecliptic planes.

Uploaded by

xlearner
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The celestial sphere

The celestial sphere is an imaginary rotating sphere of "gigantic radius", concentric and
coaxial with the Earth. All objects in the sky can be thought of as lying upon the sphere.
Projected from their corresponding geographic equivalents are the celestial equator and
the celestial poles. The celestial sphere projection is a very practical tool for positional
astronomy.

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Ecliptic

The ecliptic is the apparent path that the Sun traces out in the sky, as it appears to move
in the sky in relation to the stars, this apparent path aligns with the planets throughout the
course of the year.

Day arc at equator

Ecliptic and equator


As the rotation axis of the Earth is not perpendicular to its orbital
plane, the equatorial plane is not parallel to the ecliptic plane, but
makes an angle of about 23°26' which is known as the obliquity of the
ecliptic. The intersections of the equatorial and ecliptic plane with the
celestial dome are great circles known as the celestial equator and the
ecliptic. The intersection line of the two planes results in two
diametrically opposite intersection points, known as the equinoxes. The
equinox which the Sun passes from south to north is known as the
vernal equinox or first point of Aries.

An equinox in astronomy is that moment in time (not a whole day) when the
center of the Sun can be observed to be directly above the Earth's extended
equator, occurring around March 20 and September 23 each year.

The word equinox derives from the Latin words aequus (equal) and nox (night).

More technically, at an equinox, the Sun is at one of two opposite points on the
celestial sphere . These points of intersection are called equinoctial points -
the vernal point and the autumnal point.
Sidereal astrology is the system of astrology used by some
Western and all Jyotish astrologers who base their interpretation
around the use of the sidereal zodiac. Its primary feature is that the
signs of the zodiac align to the sky constellations of the same name.
The signs therefore run between dates which are different from the
tropical zodiac used in the West. For example, Aries runs from March
21 to April 20 in the tropical zodiac but extends from April 14 to May
14 in the sidereal (although the precise dates may vary depending on
the sidereal system used).
In effect, in most Western astrology the link between sign and sky
constellation has been broken, whereas in Sidereal astrology it
remains of paramount importance.

Tropical astrology is a type of astrology based on a zodiac whose


points of reference are the tropics. The word tropic comes from the
Greek for "turning point," and originally meant the point at which the
sun at sunrise and sunset appears to turn, and to move north along
the horizon after the winter solstice or south after the summer
solstice.

Tropical astrology is based on the idea that early astrologers (mid-to-


late first millennium BCE) defined the star signs according to the
seasons in which the sun rose in them; it wishes to preserve the
seasonal associations of those star signs by laying out new
horoscopes against a first-millennium sky. For tropical astrologers
therefore it is irrelevant that the solsticial points (tropics) have drifted
from one constellation to another over the millennia, due to the
precession of the equinoxes. The underlying philosophy remains
unchanged in spite of precession, because it is based on the earth's
(and therefore our) relationship to the sun, not to the stars. The
names of the zodiacal constellations that became the star signs are
supposed to suggest the characteristics of (the sun in) each segment
of the year. Thus, Aries (House 1), representing the sun just returning
to the northern hemisphere at the vernal equinox, symbolises unruly
beginnings; Leo (House 5), representing the powerful sun of mid-
summer, symbolises fertility and self-display; Sagittarius (House 9),
representing the retreating or meditative sun close to the winter
solstice, symbolises the search for understanding.
Precession

From the Hindu word ayana which means the arc it translates literally as "yearly
degree" and more precisely as precession. It describes the increasing gap
between the tropical and sidereal zodiacs. The ayanamsa, changes continually
through the Precession of the Equinoxes at the rate of approximately 50" a year,
is currently about 24°.

As already Goel ji mentioned, Uttarayana and dakshinayana….. which is


eastern part of the year

Ayanamsa is the Sanskrit term for the longitudinal difference between the
tropical / Sayana and sidereal/ Nirayana zodiacs. It is defined as the angle by
which the sidereal ecliptic longitude of a celestial body is less than its tropical
ecliptic longitude.

It is a compound word composed of the words "ayana" and "amsha" where


"ayana" means "precession" and "amsha" means "component".

Its time to recollect Sushil ji’s lesson of calculating ascendent, we were


adjusting this Ayanamsa angle of -58 degrees while calculating the ascendent
for our test DOB sample. That’s how we are getting accurate Longitude of
ascendent.

Uttarayana and Dakshinayana

This representation of the movement of Sun to two different ayanas - Uttarayana


and Dakshinayana. The Sun’s movement from Karkataka to Dhanu is called
Dakshinayana and that of Makara to Mithuna is called Uttarayana.

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