Name_________________________________Date____________Period_____________
Celestial Spheres
To understand the apparent motion of the celestial bodies of the sky, you need to know
how to construct a celestial sphere at any latitude on Earth. Remember when making a
celestial sphere you are diagramming the paths of the sun and other stars from the observers
latitude, and what you are drawing, is what you would see if you were there. Also, understand
what the work apparent means. It is not the actual movement of the sun and stars, in fact they
are stationary, it is the rotation and revolution of the Earth that causes the sun and stars to
“apparently” move around us.
Create a hypothesis to what the apparent motion of the sun and stars would look like from an observer
on the North Pole, and another one for an observer on the equator, relative to the horizon. Use the
words perpendicular and parallel.
Hypothesis (North Pole) ____________________________________________________________________________
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Hypothesis (Equator)____________________________________________________________________________
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Vocabulary words- Add a definition in your own words
ZenithNorth Celestial PoleCelestial Equator-
EquinoxWinter SolsticeSummer Solstice-
In this part of the exercise you will construct celestial spheres for several places of
different latitudes on Earth. Don’t forget to show all of the vocabulary words on each
diagram, and label your lines with degrees.
1. Construct a Diagram of a Celestial Sphere of Seattle at 47 degrees North.
2. Construct a Diagram of a Celestial Sphere of Cairo, Egypt at 30 degrees North.
3. Construct a Diagram of a Celestial Sphere of Hammerfest, Norway at 70
degrees North.
4. Construct a Diagram of a Celestial Sphere of the Equator at 0 degrees.
5. Construct a Diagram of a Celestial Sphere of the North Pole a 90 degrees N.
6. State if one, both or neither of your hypotheses were correct and what was
made them incorrect if that was the case.