Do you know what your Zodiac sign is... ? Bet you don't ;)

[Biseinen]

This is really intresting and quite cool to the epople that are into this stuff...

I'm technically not an Aries any more. ;_;

One tidbit of "astronomical" information that most people seem to know is their "sun sign." But few people know what it means. Fewer still know that it doesn't mean that at all, or at least that it hasn't for the past few thousand years.
If asked, most people would say that a "Gemini" is a person who was born when the sun was in front of the stars of the constellation Gemini the twins. That might have been true about 2,600 years ago, but it isn't today-for two reasons.

First, when the astrological sun sign system was set up more than two thousand years ago, the sun's path was divided into twelve equally spaced "signs," each 30 degrees wide, and these signs only approximately coincided with the constellations. Cancer, for example, is a small constellation, and Pisces is huge, but both are accorded onetwelfth of the sun's annual path. The constellation Cancer -- which is made of stars - never coincided exactly with the sign of Cancer -- which is a 30 degree wide zone along the sun's path. And each astronomer/astrologer had his own idea of where the constellation Cancer began and ended, and even of how many constellations there were.

Astronomers finally settled this nagging problem about 60 years ago when the international Astronomical Union said these are the official constellation boundaries, and published a set of specifications that reads like a surveyor's plot of irregular parcels of land. This, for example, is the true location of the constellation Cancer:

Trace along declination 7° 0' from right ascension 9h 15m to 7h 55m 30s

Then go north from declination 7° 0' to 10°.
Turn west and continue on 10° from right ascension 7h 55m 30s to 7h 48m 30s
Now head north again from 10° to 20° 0'
Then double back east from right ascension 7h 48m 30s to 7h 53m
Again go north from 20° 0' to 28° 0'.
Along declination 28° 0', go east from right ascension 7h 53m to 8h 0m
Again cut north to 33° O'.
Along declination 33° O', 90 east from right ascension 8h 0m to 9h1 5m
Then close the boundary by turning south and continuing south on right ascension 9h 15m from declination 33° O' to 7° O'.

This redrawing of the boundaries added a constellation to the zodiac. According to the official modern constellation boundaries that all astronomers use, the sun passes through 13 constellations, not 12. The "thirteenth constellation" of the zodiac is Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer, and the sun is in front of its stars during the first half of December. About one person in twenty is an "Ophiuchus," but few of them know it.


Second, the dates that the sun spends in each constellation have shifted by a few weeks. Originally the sun was in front of the stars of Gemini during the first two weeks of May, for example. Now in 1988, the sun is in front of the stars of Taurus during the same two weeks. What happened?

The earth is wobbling as it spins. Because the moon and sun are constantly pulling on the earth's equatorial bulge, the earth wobbles like a top that is slowing down. This wobbling is called precession, and it's so slow that the earth takes 25,800 years to complete one wobble. The most familiar way to think of this motion is to visualize the earth's axis as sweeping out a huge circle in the sky that includes Polaris and a point near the star Vega (which will be the pole star in 12,000 years). Another way to think about it is to imagine that the position of the sun on the first day of spring (the vernal equinox) slowly drifts around the sky. Five thousand years ago the sun was in Taurus, near the Pleiades star cluster, on the first day of spring. By the time of Christ, the earth's wobbling had caused the sun to be on the boundary between Aries and Pisces on the same date. Six centuries from now the sun will be in Aquarius as spring begins (and the "Age of Aquarius," a longoverdue age of universal peace and brotherhood, will finally dawn).

Not only has the position of the sun on the first day of spring shifted over the past few thousand years; so has the position of the sun on every date. For example, the sun used to enter Cancer at the moment of the summer solstice (hence the term tropic of Cancer for the latitude where the sun is overhead on that date). This year [1988] the sun is in Gemini on the summer solstice. Next year is the last year that this is true. Beginning in 1990 the sun will be in Taurus at the summer solstice, two, constellations off of its "original" position.

When the earth's wobbling was discovered by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus in the second century B. C., astrologers had a problem. The sun was supposed to be in Aries as spring began, but it was really in front of the stars of Pisces. The astrologers took this bombshell in stride and declared that the signs drifted with the sun and that the sun was still in the sign of Aries, even though it was in front of the stars of Pisces. Hipparchus, by the way, is the northeastfacing astronomer on the Astronomers Monument on the Observatory's lawn.

So the constellations have stayed in the same direction, but the signs have drifted to the west (relative to the fixed stars), and they no longer coincide. If you were born during the first two weeks of May 2600 years ago, you were born when the sun was in both the sign and constellation of Taurus. Now during those weeks the sun is in Aries. Astrologically speaking, you are still a Taurus; astronomically speaking you are an Aries. Likewise, most Libras are really Virgos, and so on. (And to add insult to injury, most Sagittarians are really Ophiuchi.) Of the 366 possible birthdates, the sign astrologers use corresponds to the astronomical constellation 14 percent of the time. The astrological sign is off by one constellation for 84 percent and by two constellations for the other 2 percent.

So much for the effect that the stars have on our lives. The astrological effect that "Aries" is supposed to exert follows the drifting sun, not the stars. If astrology works, its mysterious forces come from arbitrary directions in space that have nothing to do with the stars that lie in those directions.

The table below lists the dates when the sun is in the real astronomical constellations of the zodiac. The dates fluctuate by a day from year to year.

Now, will an Ophiuchus please stand up!

Astronomical Constellations of the Zodiac Constellation Dates

Capricornus - January 19 to February 15
Aquarius - February 16 to March 11
Pisces - March 12 to April 18
Aries - April 19 to May 13
Taurus - May 14 to June 19
Gemini - June 20 to July 20
Cancer - July 21 to August 9
Leo - August 10 to September 15
Virgo - September 16 to October 30
Libra - October 31 to November 22
Scorpius - November 23 to November 29
Ophiuchus - November 30 to December 17
Sagittarius - December 18 to January 18

[Jashmine]

So that makes me a Pisces now? o.o
Ew, me no like...

[Orange_Parasol]

Noo im Taurus Me Not Like Either i liked gemini

[kasi]

ew what the hell is a Ophiuchus

[Jashmine]

Ophiuchus: A large constellation in the equatorial region between Hercules and Scorpius

Lmao o.o

[-Acidic]

Ive Gone from a capricorn to a sagittarius. I Liked capricorn

[kasi]

Ophiuchus: A large constellation in the equatorial region between Hercules and Scorpius

Lmao o.o

lmao well i guess im that then

i used to be a sagatarisusuosfisjgigmpsgsjisdgjusghjds or whatever

[Craig]

Aries?Nooo Me luffs taurus

[chipie60]

I wanna be a capricorn again! Stupid Sagittarius

[Biseinen]

Haha, I've made you all cry now!

Well technically, we're all one back from what we are, so I'm a Pisces by this new constalation, but from when dates were taking and not been changed, we're still what we are. (Me for instants, still an Aries. x) ) Aries are so cool.

Ophiuchus is the Serpent bearer, it's like the coolest Zodiac. ;P

It would be too much trouble to change the calenders etc, so I doubt it will change, they said they would but it would cause utter confusion. >_<