Iana (goddess) Roscher includes Iana among the "indigitamenta", the list of deities maintained by Roman priests to assure that the correct divinity was invoked for rituals. Iana (goddess) Iana is the name of an ancient Roman goddess associated with arches and the moon, usually identified as either a form of Diana or the female counterpart of Janus. Varro (1st century BC) uses the name in his agricultural treatise, in a passage of dialogue in which the interlocutors explain that some farming tasks should be done when the moon is waxing, while the waning phase facilitates others, such as harvesting, shearing sheep, and
Celestial sphere the equatorial coordinate system, the celestial equator divides the celestial sphere into two halves: the northern and southern celestial hemispheres. Because astronomical objects are at such remote distances, casual observation of the sky offers no information on their actual distances. All celestial objects seem equally far away, as if fixed onto the inside of a sphere with a large but unknown radius, which appears to rotate westward overhead; meanwhile, Earth underfoot seems to remain still. For purposes of spherical astronomy, which is concerned only with the directions to celestial objects, it makes no difference if this is actually the case