Page:A short history of astronomy(1898).djvu/155

§ 82] beginnings of the four seasons, according to astronomical reckoning); the circle in each of its positions represents the equator of the earth, i.e. a great circle on the earth the plane of which is perpendicular to the axis of the earth and is consequently always parallel to the celestial equator. This circle is not in the plane of the ecliptic, but tilted up at an angle of 23$1⁄2$°, so that  must always be supposed below and  above the plane of the paper (which represents the ecliptic); the equator cuts the ecliptic along . The diagram (in accordance with the common custom in astronomical diagrams) represents the various circles as seen from the north side of the equator and ecliptic. When the earth is at, the north pole (as is shewn more clearly in fig. 42, in which  denote the north pole and south pole respectively) is turned away

from the sun,, which is on the lower or south side of the plane of the equator, and consequently inhabitants of the northern hemisphere see the sun for less than half the day, while those on the southern hemisphere see the sun for more than half the day, and those beyond the line (in fig. 42) see the sun during the whole day. Three months later, when the earth's centre is at (fig. 41), the sun lies in the plane of the equator, the poles of the earth are turned neither towards nor away from the sun, but aside, and all over the earth daylight lasts for 12 hours and night for an equal time. Three months later still, when the earth's centre is at, the sun is above the plane of the equator, and the inhabitants of the northern hemisphere see the sun for more than half the day, those on the southern hemisphere for less than half, while those in parts of the earth farther north than the line (in fig. 42) see the sun for the whole 24 hours. Finally, when, at the autumn