Throughout the year, the sun moves around the horizon. This reflects the rotation of the Earth around the luminary. The great circle of the celestial sphere along which the sun moves is called the ecliptic. So what is an ecliptic and why is it needed?
Ecliptic in simple words
The ecliptic is best viewed as an example of a carousel. When you sit on a horse and start spinning, then at this time the whole park with attractions is visible. First you see the central pillar of your carousel, and if you look further, then other attractions, a ticket kiosk, some kind of billboards.
The ecliptic plane is similar to this carousel. If you replace the horse with the planet Earth, and instead of the center of the pillar imagine the Sun, then you can trace the movement of the planet around the star. Our Earth moves in orbit at a speed of about thirty kilometers per second. Because of this, everything that is behind the Sun, that is, behind our central pillar of the carousel, is constantly changing: as if you are sitting on a horse and looking into the distance, and there, on each section of the circle, the back picture of the park is always different: kiosks, cafes, other attractions, etc. etc. So here, our planet revolves around the Sun, and everything that is behind it, all the stars, galaxies, are always different: we see certain constellations at certain moments in the place where they were at the same time a year ago.
This trajectory of movement, this certain line along which the Earth, the Sun and any other planet move, is called the ecliptic.
Yearly changes
Everyone knows that the height of the Sun at noon above the horizon changes throughout the year. In the summer, the star is very high in the sky: it occupies the highest position on June 22, the longest day of the year, called the summer solstice. After it, the ecliptic of the Sun falls below. The lowest border of the ecliptic can be seen on the winter day of the solstice - December 22. It is short, in it the solar path over the horizon is the lowest: the Sun rises late and sets early.
Sun and Zodiac
So what is an ecliptic and how does the sun go through it? If people could see stars in the daytime, then they noticed at the end of March that the constellation Pisces is on the other side of the Sun. Gradually, the luminary shifts to the east, passing through all the constellations. And if it were possible to see the stars around the clock, then it would be possible to trace the movement of the Sun to Aries, and after a month - to Taurus, then to Gemini, Cancer, Leo, etc. Each month, in the background, the sun has a new constellation. And so throughout the year: the yellow dwarf passes through all the constellations of the Zodiac: the last is the constellation Ophiuchus, located between Scorpio and Sagittarius.
Passing through the horizon, the Sun passes a rather large circle, facing the equator at 23027 '. During the year, the star makes a complete revolution in the ecliptic, moving counterclockwise. During the day it shifts eastward by only one degree.
There are solstices on this trajectory that are 900 degrees away from the equator line, that is, the ecliptic angle on these days is 90 degrees.
During movement, the position of the ecliptic relative to the horizon is constantly changing.
Path of the sun
What is an ecliptic and how is it related to the zodiac? The zodiac is a huge belt on the celestial sphere, passing along the line along which the sun and moon, as well as other planets. In this case, the star moves almost strictly along a certain trajectory. Moreover, this is observed only on the ecliptic of the Sun. And other planets and celestial bodies move with displacements in a southern or northern direction from the line of motion.
Eclipse
The line of the ecliptic is the plane of motion, clearly visible in the eclipse of the moon and the sun. This phenomenon occurs only along the described line. When a satellite eclipses the Sun, people can observe a solar eclipse: during this period, the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, thus completely or partially covering the solar disk with itself.
Eclipses do not occur monthly, since the Moon most of the time is either below or above the plane of the ecliptic of the Earth.
The line of motion of other planets
Scientists have proved that the ecliptic is such a space, or rather the trajectory along which not only our planet moves, but also all the other seven bodies of the solar system. All of them are located approximately on the same line with our Earth. Based on this, astronomers can easily find the position of other planets, since their ecliptic serves as a pointer where you can see Venus, Mars and other celestial bodies in the sky. And vice versa, speaking about a particular planet, you can indicate the line of its ecliptic at different times of the year.
So what is an ecliptic and what is it? This is just a trajectory of movement along which the Sun, other planets and space objects move throughout the year. Each of them, as it turned out, has a certain trajectory of movement. And if you depict it, it will look like an oval located around the Earth. And the space that is inside the oval is the plane of the ecliptic.