touching each of the tropical circles at one point ... This Zodiac has a determinable width (set at 8° today) ... that is why it is described by three circles: the central one is called "heliacal" (hēliakos, "of the sun"). The term heliacal circle is used for the ecliptic, which is in the center of the zodiacal circle, conceived as a band including the noted constellations named on mythical themes. Other authors use Zodiac to mean ecliptic, which first appears in a gloss of unknown author in a passage of Cleomedes where he is explaining that the Moon is in the zodiacal circle as well and periodically crosses the path of the Sun. As some of these crossings represent eclipses of the Moon, the path of the Sun is given a synonym, the ekleiptikos (kuklos) from ekleipsis, "eclipse". English names The two solstices can be distinguished by different pairs of names, depending on which feature one wants to stress. Summer solstice and winter solstice are the most common names, referring to the seasons they are associated with. However, these can be ambiguous since the Northern Hemisphere's summer is the Southern Hemisphere's winter, and vice versa. The Latinate names estival solstice (summer) and hibernal solstice (winter) are sometimes used to the same effect, as are midsummer and midwinter. June solstice and December solstice refer to the months of year in which they take place, with no ambiguity as to which hemisphere is the context. They are still not universal, however, as not all cultures use a solar-based calendar where the solstices occur every year in the same month (as they do not in the Islamic calendar and Hebrew calendar, for example). Northern solstice and southern solstice indicate the hemisphere of the Sun's location. The northern solstice is in June, when the Sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere, and the southern solstice is in December, when the Sun is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere. These terms can be used unambiguously for other planets. First point of Cancer and first point of Capricorn refer to the astrological signs that the sun "is entering" (a system rooted in Roman Classical period dates). Due to the precession of the equinoxes, the constellations the sun appears in at solstices are currently Taurus in June and Sagittarius in December. Solstice terms in East Asia The traditional