Cloudlet in a circular orbit. Orbit plane: the position of a cloudlet is determined by the azimuth angle ϕ and the deprojected distance r to Sgr A^*. The circular (tangential) velocity is v_ϕ. A small radial velocity v_R will make the cloudlet spiral outward (v_R > 0) or inward (v_R < 0). Plane of thesky: the orbit appears to an observer as an ellipse characterized by the inclination angle i between the two planes, and by the angle θ between thenorth axis and the intersection of the orbital and sky planes. PA refers to the position angle on the sky, from the north axis to the east axis, used in Fig. 8 and in the text.