Celestial sphere

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Not to be confused with the celestial spheres of cosmological models in antiquity. For other
uses, see Celestial (disambiguation).

Earth rotating within a relatively small-radius geocentric celestial sphere. Shown here are stars (white),
the ecliptic (red, the circumscription of the Sun's apparent annual track), and the lines of right ascension and
circles of declination (cyan) of the equatorial coordinate system.

In astronomy and navigation, the celestial sphere is an abstract sphere that has an

arbitrarily large radius and is concentric to Earth. All objects in the sky can be conceived
as being projected upon the inner surface of the celestial sphere, which may
be centered on Earth or the observer. If centered on the observer, half of the sphere
would resemble a hemispherical screen over the observing location.
The celestial sphere is a practical tool for spherical astronomy,
allowing astronomers to specify the apparent positions of objects in the sky if their
distances are unknown or irrelevant. In the equatorial coordinate system, the celestial
equator divides the celestial sphere into two halves: the northern and southern celestial
hemispheres.