How does the Moon's motion relative to the stars compare the sun?

Answer 1

Polaris is almost exactly above the North Pole so other stars appear to rotate around it as the Earth rotates, around the pole, UNDER Polaris.

Stars, except the trivial case of OUR sun, are immobile. The Earth rotates directly under Polaris, around the polar axis through both North and South poles.

Answer 2

As the night progresses, Polaris appears to stand still, and all the other stars turn around it in a counterclockwise direction.

And to be perfectly honest, Polaris itself isn't still; it's making a TINY circle in the sky. It's so tiny - about 0.7 degrees off the precise north pole - that you cannot notice it with the naked eye, but very precise star trail photos will reveal it.

Answer 3

Every star has its own "proper motion", which is the actual movement of each star through the galaxy. The Sun is also moving, which complicates things a bit.

But from our perspective here on Earth, the primary cause of the stars appearing to move - to rise in the east and set in the west - is the rotation of the Earth.

The North Star, Polaris, is aligned ALMOST exactly with the axis of the Earth's rotation. Because of this, the North Star always appears to be north, and the other stars seem to rotate around it. (It's actually the Earth doing the rotating, of course.) But the North Star's alignment isn't exact; it is about 0.7 degrees off. We can't see such a small difference, but if you do a long exposure photo of the polar stars, you'll see that the North Star does make a tiny circle around the night sky.

Answer 4

All stars have their own proper motions, but these are not visible in the span of lifetimes, or even centuries. During the night, no planet moves appreciably.

However, because of the rotation of the Earth, all of the stars APPEAR to move, rising in the east and setting in the west. All - except one. Polaris is coincidentally positioned almost precisely above the north pole. So the apparent motion of Polaris is to make very tiny circles in the sky.

Answer 5

The difference is one of apparent speed. No star outside of the observer's circumpolar

region takes more than 24 hours to move around or across the sky from its rising point

to its setting point, whereas the movement of stars within a constellation is not discernable

over the course of a human lifetime.

Answer 6

All of the stars in the sky appear to move in concentric circles, centered on the "North Celestial Pole".

Polaris happens to be the star nearest the pole of the sky; but it's not exactly on the pole, so even

Polaris appears to make a tiny circle around it, once every 24 hours.

Answer 7

-- Because of the Earth's revolution in orbit around the Sun, the Sun appears to us
to complete a circuit around the sky through the stars every 364.24 days.

-- Because of the Moon's revolution in orbit around the Earth, the Moon appears to us
to complete a circuit around the sky through the stars every 27.32 days.

Answer 8

EVERYTHING moves. The Sun moves, the Earth moves, the Moon, the planets, even all the stars are always in motion. We can easily see the Earth spinning, because the Sun appears to rise and set; we see the Moon move, because its position with respect to the background stars move each night. We can see the planets like Jupiter and Venus move, because they also change their positions from night to night.

The only apparent exception is the North Star, Polaris. Spend the whole night watching the stars, and you'll notice that everything else seems to spin AROUND the North Star. That's because Polaris is (entirely coincidentally!) located ALMOST directly above the North Pole.

But it isn't EXACTLY above the North Pole. Don't WATCH it; take a long-exposure PHOTO of it, and you'll see that the North Star itself makes a very tiny circle in the sky. Polaris is actually about 3/4 of a degree off the Earth's axis.

But take a much LONGER view, and something else would become apparent; the Earth spins on its axis every 24 hours, but the Earth's axis also WOBBLES - and the period of the wobble is about 26,000 years. Come back in 10,000 years, and Polaris won't even be CLOSE to the North Pole, and there won't be any pole star.

But all the stars REALLY DO MOVE, although the apparent motion is too slow to be seen in a human lifetime. In 26,000 years, when the wobble in the Earth's axis brings it back to Polaris, Polaris itself will have moved - and will then be about 6 degrees away.

Answer 9

Most stars move so slowly that it would take several lifetimes for anyone to notice a difference. The stars around Polaris don't move any more than the others.

Because the Earth spins on its axis, while we ride along on it, there is a perception that the stars move around Polaris - but this is a trick. THEY aren't moving - WE are.

Answer 10

In the northern hemisphere, because it is close to the celestial north pole, other stars might seem to rotate around the North Star (Polaris). But this is due to the rotation of the Earth, and not from motion of stars. Notably, Polaris is actually a multiple star system with companions gravitationally bound that do move around a common gravitational center in space - the largest, Alpha Ursa Minoris Aa, with two smaller companions Alpha Ursa Minoris B and Alpha Ursa Minoris Ab, and two more distant ones, Alpha Ursa Minoris C and Alpha Ursa Minoris D.