... Our restless globe and its companion. ... A Look at the Motions of the Earth in Space and How They Are Changing . ... Earth's rotation as viewed from above the north and south geographic poles. ... The Earth revolves around the Sun-also counterclockwise viewed from above the North Pole, clockwise viewed from the South Pole-to give us our years (see Figure 2 ). The plane of the Earth's orbit is called the ecliptic (where eclipses happen). ... Earth's orbit as viewed from the north ecliptic pole. ...