Kathryn McCague, age 12, Columbus Ohio,

What is the Tropic of Cancer?

The celestial equator is an imaginery line way up in the sky, It parallels the equator on the globe. Heavenly bodies are placed by this and other imaginary parallels in the sky. During the yearly seasons, the sun moves north and south across the celestial equator, Its journey takes it across a background of fixed stars and constellations,

The sun moves an exact distance north and south of the celestial equator, At certain points it turns around and retraces its path. These points are the tropics, or turning points. Near Christmas  the sun is against a background of the constellation Capricorn, One June 22, it reaches the northern tip of its journey and turns around in the constellation of Cancer, the Crab.

The circles drawn through these points over the sky mark the sum s tropics. These lines have parallels on the earth. The Tropic of Capricorn is some 23 degrees south of the equator. The Tropic of Cancer if some 23 degrees north of the equator.