Talk:Celestial sphere

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 24 August 2020 and 20 December 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Ignis centralis.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 17:02, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Image
A Wikipedian out there who is good with 3D modeling could make a very slick image for this page. I know there is already an image but it would be pretty easy to make it a lot nicer. -Craig Pemberton (talk) 02:37, 22 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Check out Commons. --Traveler100 (talk) 17:30, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

Contradictory statement
Hi,

The statement that the sun rotates 1 degree to the east every day resulting in 4 "extra" minutes being required in the diurnal motion for the sun to reappear at the same meridian appears to be contradictory.

If the earth rotates from west to east and the sun moves east over its ecliptic, then the sun should appear 4 minutes earlier at the same point. This is substantiated by the rest of the numbers in the article.

Someone please let me know if I am not understanding...or if I am right, please edit and correct. I do not feel qualified to do so.

Thanks Madan

-- I believe you're not understanding. The article is correct. The sun is moving eastward; the earth is rotating west to east. The earth takes 23h56m04s to return to the same orientation with respect to the fixed stars; meanwhile, the sun has drifted eastward a bit more. So, the earth has to keep rotating for another 3m56s before it comes into the same orientation with respect to the sun. Put another way, successive meridian transits of a star occur on a 23h56m04s cycle (1 sidereal day), while successive meridian tranits of the sun take a little longer (1 solar day). -- JThorstensen

some questions?
hi, i am only an beginner in astronomy. i am quite confused about the concept of celestial sphere. First, does the sphere means the whole universe(it contains the constellations)?or are the constellations inside the galaxy? second, do all stars complete its rotation in 23h56mins(even the giants,sun,etc)? third, can we gaze the stars on the southern celestial sphere if we're on the northern sphere on earth? last, is the radius of the celestial sphere equal to the distance of earth to sun? thanks-Mayer

who invented the celestial sphere?
who invented the celestial sphere? who invented the celestial sphere? who invented the celestial sphere? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Special:Contributions/ (talk)

Northern Pole Star
So will our northern reference pole star change to another star in the future Risingsun56 (talk) 16:22, 24 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes (see Polaris). --Roentgenium111 (talk) 20:18, 13 June 2009 (UTC)
 * And so will we change the celestial coordinates?Friendly Person (talk) 18:21, 1 October 2011 (UTC)

Eudoxan planetary model
As this article presently stands, the 2nd paragraph on the Eudoxan planetary model seems only very thinly related to the subject of the article. Why is it there? Friendly Person (talk) 22:21, 9 October 2011 (UTC)

No, it does not apply to all celestial bodies
Someone (apparently Student7) re-wrote this article to be "less earth-centric". Sorry, but it doesn't apply. The ecliptic, which is mentioned in the article, is the plane of Earth's orbit about the Sun. It does not apply to a planet around some other star. We could write it that way, but as it stands, it's now nonsense. Tfr000 (talk) 21:32, 15 May 2015 (UTC)


 * I agree. The term should, for historical reason's, probably be reserved for the Celestial sphere (referring to Earth), not just any celestial sphere (referring to any object). Nothing stops us from defining the generalized concept in a separate section. YohanN7 (talk) 14:45, 16 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Excellent idea... a separate section. Tfr000 (talk) 15:10, 17 May 2015 (UTC)
 * I now agree with the editors. It should be worded earth-centric. There is no general set of coordinates for other stars/planets. Nor should there be. It is unique to Earth-Sol. Student7 (talk) 20:56, 24 May 2015 (UTC)
 * It has now been fixed. Feel free to elaborate on it. Tfr000 (talk) 13:24, 14 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Looks fine. YohanN7 (talk) 13:43, 14 June 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified (January 2018)
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What is the name of the two discs maps of the sky ?
I know it exist, I can't find the name. I may have missed it in the article, in any case it is not visible enough IMHO. Yug (talk)  17:15, 14 July 2020 (UTC)

In the intro of the version active on Oct 13th 2020...
... there is written "which appears to rotate westward overhead". This is correct but needs clarification. For instance, what does it mean if the observer is at the North (or South) pole ? --Arnaud Chéritat (talk) 22:35, 12 October 2020 (UTC)