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ecliptic

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ecliptic

Path, against the background of stars, that the Sun appears to follow each year as it is orbited by the Earth. It can be thought of as the plane of the Earth's orbit projected onto the celestial sphere.

The ecliptic is tilted at about 23.5° with respect to the celestial equator, a result of the tilt of the Earth's axis relative to the plane of its orbit around the Sun.



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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
Thus said, he turnd, and SATAN bowing low, As to superior Spirits is wont in Heaven, Where honour due and reverence none neglects, Took leave, and toward the coast of Earth beneath, Down from th' Ecliptic, sped with hop'd success, Throws his steep flight with many an Aerie wheele, Nor staid, till on NIPHATES top he lights.
Paradise Lost by Milton, John View in context
It was after tea on a summer evening, and the conversation, which had roamed in a desultory, spasmodic fashion from golf clubs to the causes of the change in the obliquity of the ecliptic, came round at last to the question of atavism and hereditary aptitudes.
Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan View in context
Here palms, alpacas, and volcanoes; sun's disks and stars; ecliptics, horns-of-plenty, and rich banners waving, are in luxuriant profusion stamped; so that the precious gold seems almost to derive an added preciousness and enhancing glories, by passing through those fancy mints, so Spanishly poetic.
Moby Dick LXVIII-CXXXIV by Melville, Herman View in context
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