# Talk:Ecliptic

Re questions: yes, the earth moving in its orbit creates the apparent motion of the Sun against the stars. The ecliptic plane contains (roughly speaking) the orbits of most of the major planets, including the earth's. (Pluto being the most obvious exception.)
Something else that you can see by "speeding things up" in a decent astronomy program; the apparent path of the ecliptic in the sky (and hence of the planets "travelling" it) rises beginning on Dec. 22 (winter solstice) and falls beginning on June 22 (summer solstice). It also "rocks" back and forth. I recommend looking at a decent astronomy program (there are some good freeware ones) to see and understand these relationships better. -- Twang Mar 3, 2006

See the comment "(as from the list in the previous chapter)" (italics added) from the section on "Ecliptic and Sun."
Either somebody copy-pasted something, or else somebody misnomed a "section" as a "chapter."
Worrisome.

I'll preface this by saying I'm rather new to astronomy, but star maps I've seen suggest that the Zodiac constellations lie roughly from the ecliptic ±20°, which would give it a total width of ~40°. It also appears that the current figure of 20° wide in latitude is not mentioned in the provided source. Rainbowredhead (talk) 19:58, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

This section contains a list of "twelve constellations that are not on the ecliptic, but are close enough that the Moon and planets can occasionally appear in them". But one of the cited sources (32) then provides clear evidence that this list of 12 is incorrect; it should not include Auriga, Canis Minor, and Serpens. They should be removed. 210.176.55.140 (talk) 02:40, 13 March 2025 (UTC)

Currently, if the Earth's axis is projected onto the ecliptic plane, what is the angle between the projection and the semi-major axis of the orbit? My estimate based on the right ascensions at winter solstice and at perihelion is about 13
  
    
      
        
          
          
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. Tilt alone does not define the orientation of the Earth's axis. --Roland (talk) 14:59, 8 November 2025 (UTC)