in astronomy, a great circle of the sphere, supposed to be drawn through the middle of the zodiac, making an angle with the equinoctial of about \(23^\circ 30'\), which is the sun's greatest declination; or, more strictly speaking, it is that path or way among the fixed stars, that the earth appears to describe to an eye placed in the sun. See Astronomy-Index.

Some call it via Solis, "the way of the sun;" because the sun in his apparent annual motion never deviates from it, as all the other planets do more or less.

ECLIPIC, in geography, a great circle on the terrestrial globe, not only answering to, but falling within, the plane of the celestial ecliptic. See Geography.