Ecliptic

The Ecliptic is the plane created by the apparent path of the sun as it travels through the sky, as seen from the Earth. This path is considered sacred in Vedic Astronomy

The planets and the moon also travel across the sky in a narrow band very near the ecliptic.

Obliquity
The ecliptic plane is not on the same plane as the Celestial equator, due to the tilt of the Earth's rotational axis. The two planes are thus apart from each other ('Oblique') by a specific angle. The Vedic astronomers generally calculated the angle as 24°. Modern calculations put the angle at 23°26' This angle is also known to vary over tens of thousands of years from 22.1° to 24.5°.