The choice

The pivoting circle of illumination has to be one of the most grotesque creations ever manufactured to explain an astronomical event that is the Equinox -

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140319.html

The antidote for that awful notion arrived this year in the form of time lapse footage of the sunlit face of the Earth over the course of the year where the fixed circle of illumination is implied and the dual surface rotations of the Earth can be seen in all their magnificence -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFrP6QfbC2g

In truth there is no choice , the great Equinox event today signals polar sunrise and the long polar day with its expanding circumference which reaches a maximum (Antarctic circle) on the December Solstice and the opposite at the North pole.

The recent explosion of celestial sphere 'explanations' with the Sun moving South and North of the rotational Equator at the Equinox follows the pivoting circle of illumination ideology as a monstrosity of the human mind. People should be ashamed of themselves to see imaging misused in the worst possible way but apparently they are prepared to accept a mockery of human intelligence and judgment.

On Thursday, September 22, 2016 at 6:49:30 AM UTC+1, Gerald Kelleher wrote:

In truth there is no choice

Correct, both of these show exactly the same thing.

In one case the photos have the north pole at the top, in the other, they have the ecliptic flat across the middle.

This is called "turning", and I know from your confusion about the South Pole that turning is one of those concepts you have difficulty with.

The sooner a person starts to look at the North and South poles as windows into the orbital surface rotation parallel to the orbital plane, the sooner they start to appreciate the planet's two distinct day/night cycles and especially the orbital day/night cycle in isolation at the poles or as the seasons when combining with daily rotation.

In seasonal terms the Northern hemisphere is presently at orbital twilight, at the December Solstice it is orbital midnight, March is orbital dawn while the June Solstice is orbital noon mirroring the daily day/night cycle. It dispenses with the contrived idea of the meteorological seasons by putting the orbital Equinox/Solstice points in correct perspective.

Minus daily rotation, the orbital surface rotation looks like this -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVJ9DfVhAYw

With rotation it is much harder to discern as daily rotation swamps the orbital perspective apart from continental Antarctica -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFrP6QfbC2g

Remember now,at least those who can, the polar surface points allow the observer to discern the way the planet turns to the central Sun as it moves through space and it makes all the difference in so many areas of terrestrial science based on the dual cycles of the Earth.