William L. Mckinney, age 14, of Seattle, Wash., for his question:

What is the sun's path through the stars called?

The sun seems to move against a background of fixed stars and its celestial path is called the ecliptic. The stars are there, even in the daytime when their faraway lights are out dazzled by our sun. North of the equator, the celestial path arches higher over the sky in the summer and the noon sun climbs almost to the top of the heavens.

The ecliptic is on a level with the earth's orbit around the sun. The major planets also have orbits on this same plane, which is more or less level with the sun's equator. For this reason, most of the planets also rise, cross the sky and set in the ecliptic.