Wiktionary
n. (alternative spelling of celestial sphere English)
WordNet
Wikipedia
In astronomy and navigation, the celestial sphere is an imaginary sphere of arbitrarily large radius, concentric with Earth. All objects in the observer's sky can be thought of as projected upon the inside surface of the celestial sphere, as if it were the underside of a dome or a hemispherical screen. The celestial sphere is a practical tool for spherical astronomy, allowing observers to plot positions of objects in the sky when their distances are unknown or unimportant.
Usage examples of "celestial sphere".
The passage of celestial bodies was related to the ecliptic, the projection of the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun upon the celestial sphere.
They, however, who make the position of the stars depend on the divine will, and in a manner decree what character each man shall have, and what good or evil shall happen to him, if they think that these same stars have that power conferred upon them by the supreme power of God, in order that they may determine these things according to their will, do a great injury to the celestial sphere, in whose most brilliant senate, and most splendid senate-house, as it were, they suppose that wicked deeds are decreed to be done,-such deeds as that, if any terrestrial state should decree them, it would be condemned to overthrow by the decree of the whole human race.
Instead, it will be traveling toward a point on the celestial sphere near the boundary of the constellations Taurus and Orion, where there are no nearby objects.
The man occupying the jade throne could only be Emperor Kai Tsao Shou Chin, Son of Heaven, and Divine Gate to the Celestial Sphere.
Its course, such as it is, has been chosen to carry it into one of the more densely populated areas of the immediate sector of the celestial sphere in which Earth's sun is located.
Glancing up, her attention was caught by the River of Heaven, and she suddenly wondered if it, too, was a cloud of steam, warm breath on the cold celestial sphere of the fixed stars far above her.
Against the eternity of the celestial sphere and the great harmony sung in the heavens, she was the merest flash, so brief in its passing that perhaps the daimones coursing in the aether above could no more comprehend her existence than she could comprehend theirs.
The daily movement of the Sun across the celestial sphere was represented in certain Slavonic myths as a change in his age: the Sun was bom every morning, appeared as a handsome child, reached maturity towards midday and died in the evening as an old man.
Was it the seam that bound together the two hemispheres of the celestial sphere, as Theophrastus wrote?