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Journey of the Sun Among the Stars

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Our Place in the Universe
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Abstract

The fact that the Sun and stars do not rotate around the Earth at the same rate implied that the Sun is moving through the background of fixed stars. Over the course of a year, the Sun goes around the 12 zodiac constellations along the ecliptic. Curiously, the path of the ecliptic is inclined at an angle with respect to the celestial equator. This inclination gives us the seasons.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Right ascensions and declinations of star change with time because of precession (Sect. 11.3). The coordinates here refer to the epoch of year 2000.

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Kwok, S. (2017). Journey of the Sun Among the Stars. In: Our Place in the Universe. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54172-3_6

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