 An example of this is the precession of the Earth's axis considered over the time frame of a few hundred or thousand years.When viewed in this time frame the so-called "precession of the equinoxes" can appear to mimic a secular phenomenon since the axial precession takes 25,771.5 years and monitoring it over a much smaller timeframe appears to simply result in a "drift" of the position of the equinox in the plane of the ecliptic of approximately one degree every 71.6 years, influencing the Milankovitch cycles.Secular variation also refers to long-term trends in the orbits of the planets Mercury to Neptune.