fbpx
Wikipedia

Zodiac

The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. The paths of the Moon and visible planets are within the belt of the zodiac.[1]

The Earth's orbit around the Sun causes the apparent motion of the latter along the ecliptic (red). Earth is axially tilted 23.4° relative to this plane; its equator, extended to the stars, is shown in light blue.
Astrophotos of the twelve zodiac constellations

In Western astrology, and formerly astronomy, the zodiac is divided into twelve signs, each occupying 30° of celestial longitude and roughly corresponding to the following star constellations: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces.[2][3]

These astrological signs form a celestial coordinate system, or more specifically an ecliptic coordinate system, which takes the ecliptic as the origin of latitude and the Sun's position at vernal equinox as the origin of longitude.[4]

Name

The English word zodiac derives from zōdiacus,[5] the Latinized form of the Ancient Greek zōdiakòs kýklos (ζῳδιακός κύκλος),[citation needed] meaning "cycle or circle of little animals". Zōdion (ζῴδιον) is the diminutive of zōon (ζῷον, "animal"). The name reflects the prominence of animals (and mythological hybrids) among the twelve signs.

Usage

 
Modern zodiac wheel showing the 12 signs used in horoscopic astrology

The zodiac was in use by the Roman era, based on concepts inherited by Hellenistic astronomy from Babylonian astronomy of the Chaldean period (mid-1st millennium BC), which, in turn, derived from an earlier system of lists of stars along the ecliptic.[6] The construction of the zodiac is described in Ptolemy's comprehensive 2nd century AD work, the Almagest.[7]

Although the zodiac remains the basis of the ecliptic coordinate system in use in astronomy besides the equatorial one,[8][9] the term and the names of the twelve signs are today mostly associated with horoscopic astrology.[10] The term "zodiac" may also refer to the region of the celestial sphere encompassing the paths of the planets corresponding to the band of about 8 arc degrees above and below the ecliptic. The zodiac of a given planet is the band that contains the path of that particular body; e.g., the "zodiac of the Moon" is the band of 5° above and below the ecliptic. By extension, the "zodiac of the comets" may refer to the band encompassing most short-period comets.[11]

History

Early history

As early as the 14th century BC a complete list of the 36 Egyptian decans was placed among the hieroglyphs adorning the tomb of Seti I; they figured again in the temple of Ramesses II, and characterize every Egyptian astrological monument. Both the famous zodiacs of Dendera display their symbols, identified by Karl Richard Lepsius.[12]

 
A 6th century mosaic zodiac wheel in a synagogue, incorporating Greek-Byzantine elements, Beit Alpha, Israel
 
Zodiac circle with planets, c.1000 – NLW MS 735C

The division of the ecliptic into the zodiacal signs originates in Babylonian astronomy during the first half of the 1st millennium BC. The zodiac draws on stars in earlier Babylonian star catalogues, such as the MUL.APIN catalogue, which was compiled around 1000 BC. Some constellations can be traced even further back, to Bronze Age (First Babylonian dynasty) sources, including Gemini "The Twins," from MAŠ.TAB.BA.GAL.GAL "The Great Twins," and Cancer "The Crab," from AL.LUL "The Crayfish," among others.[citation needed]

Around the end of the 5th century BC, Babylonian astronomers divided the ecliptic into 12 equal "signs", by analogy to 12 schematic months of 30 days each. Each sign contained 30° of celestial longitude, thus creating the first known celestial coordinate system. According to calculations by modern astrophysics, the zodiac was introduced between 409 and 398 BC, during Persian rule,[13] and probably within a very few years of 401 BC.[14] Unlike modern astrologers, who place the beginning of the sign of Aries at the position of the Sun at the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere (March equinox), Babylonian astronomers fixed the zodiac in relation to stars, placing the beginning of Cancer at the "Rear Twin Star" (β Geminorum) and the beginning of Aquarius at the "Rear Star of the Goat-Fish" (δ Capricorni).[15]

Due to the precession of the equinoxes, the time of year the Sun is in a given constellation has changed since Babylonian times, the point of March equinox has moved from Aries into Pisces.[16]

Because the division was made into equal arcs, 30° each, they constituted an ideal system of reference for making predictions about a planet's longitude. However, Babylonian techniques of observational measurements were in a rudimentary stage of evolution.[17] They measured the position of a planet in reference to a set of "normal stars" close to the ecliptic (±9° of latitude) as observational reference points to help positioning a planet within this ecliptic coordinate system.[18]

In Babylonian astronomical diaries, a planet position was generally given with respect to a zodiacal sign alone, less often in specific degrees within a sign.[19] When the degrees of longitude were given, they were expressed with reference to the 30° of the zodiacal sign, i.e., not with a reference to the continuous 360° ecliptic.[19] In astronomical ephemerides, the positions of significant astronomical phenomena were computed in sexagesimal fractions of a degree (equivalent to minutes and seconds of arc).[20] For daily ephemerides, the daily positions of a planet were not as important as the astrologically significant dates when the planet crossed from one zodiacal sign to the next.[19]

Hebrew astronomy and astrology

Knowledge of the Babylonian zodiac is said to be reflected in the Hebrew Bible; E. W. Bullinger interpreted the creatures appearing in the book of Ezekiel as the middle signs of the four quarters of the zodiac,[21][22] with the Lion as Leo, the Bull is Taurus, the Man representing Aquarius and the Eagle representing Scorpio.[23] Some authors have linked the twelve tribes of Israel with the same signs or the lunar Hebrew calendar having twelve lunar months in a lunar year. Martin and others have argued that the arrangement of the tribes around the Tabernacle (reported in the Book of Numbers) corresponded to the order of the zodiac, with Judah, Reuben, Ephraim, and Dan representing the middle signs of Leo, Aquarius, Taurus, and Scorpio, respectively. Such connections were taken up by Thomas Mann, who in his novel Joseph and His Brothers attributes characteristics of a sign of the zodiac to each tribe in his rendition of the Blessing of Jacob.[citation needed]

Hellenistic and Roman era

 
The 1st century BC Dendera zodiac (19th-century engraving)

The Babylonian star catalogs entered Greek astronomy in the 4th century BC, via Eudoxus of Cnidus.[24][25] Babylonia or Chaldea in the Hellenistic world came to be so identified with astrology that "Chaldean wisdom" became among Greeks and Romans the synonym of divination through the planets and stars. Hellenistic astrology derived in part from Babylonian and Egyptian astrology.[26]Horoscopic astrology first appeared in Ptolemaic Egypt (305 BC–30 BC). The Dendera zodiac, a relief dating to ca. 50 BC, is the first known depiction of the classical zodiac of twelve signs.

The earliest extant Greek text using the Babylonian division of the zodiac into 12 signs of 30 equal degrees each is the Anaphoricus of Hypsicles of Alexandria (fl. 190 BC).[27] Particularly important in the development of Western horoscopic astrology was the astrologer and astronomer Ptolemy, whose work Tetrabiblos laid the basis of the Western astrological tradition.[28] Under the Greeks, and Ptolemy in particular, the planets, Houses, and signs of the zodiac were rationalized and their function set down in a way that has changed little to the present day.[29] Ptolemy lived in the 2nd century AD, three centuries after the discovery of the precession of the equinoxes by Hipparchus around 130 BC. Hipparchus's lost work on precession never circulated very widely until it was brought to prominence by Ptolemy,[30] and there are few explanations of precession outside the work of Ptolemy until late Antiquity, by which time Ptolemy's influence was widely established.[31] Ptolemy clearly explained the theoretical basis of the western zodiac as being a tropical coordinate system, by which the zodiac is aligned to the equinoxes and solstices, rather than the visible constellations that bear the same names as the zodiac signs.[32]

Hindu zodiac

According to mathematician-historian Montucla, the Hindu zodiac was adopted from the Greek zodiac through communications between ancient India and the Greek empire of Bactria.[33] The Hindu zodiac uses the sidereal coordinate system, which makes reference to the fixed stars. The tropical zodiac (of Mesopotamian origin) is divided by the intersections of the ecliptic and equator, which shifts in relation to the backdrop of fixed stars at a rate of 1° every 72 years, creating the phenomenon known as precession of the equinoxes. The Hindu zodiac, being sidereal, does not maintain this seasonal alignment, but there are still similarities between the two systems. The Hindu zodiac signs and corresponding Greek signs sound very different, being in Sanskrit and Greek respectively, but their symbols are nearly identical.[34] For example, dhanu means "bow" and corresponds to Sagittarius, the "archer", and kumbha means "water-pitcher" and corresponds to Aquarius, the "water-carrier".[35]

Middle Ages

 
Angers Cathedral South Rose Window of Christ (center) with elders (bottom half) and zodiac (top half). Medieval stained glass by Andre Robin after the fire of 1451

During the Abbasid era, Greek reference books were systematically translated into Arabic, and Islamic astronomers then did their own observations, correcting Ptolemy's Almagest. One such book was Al-Sufi's Book of Fixed Stars, which has pictorial depictions of 48 constellations. The book was divided into three sections: constellations of the zodiac, constellations north of the zodiac, and southern constellations. When Al-Sufi's book, and other works, were translated in the 11th century, there were mistakes made in the translations. As a result, some stars ended up with the names of the constellation they belong to (e.g. Hamal in Aries).

The High Middle Ages saw a revival of interest in Greco-Roman magic, first in Kabbalism and later continued in Renaissance magic. This included magical uses of the zodiac, as found, e.g., in the Sefer Raziel HaMalakh.

The zodiac is found in medieval stained glass as at Angers Cathedral, where the master glass maker, André Robin, made the ornate rosettes for the North and South transepts after the fire there in 1451.[36]

Mughal king Jahangir issued an attractive series of coins in gold and silver depicting the twelve signs of the zodiac.

Medieval Islamic era

 
Ottoman-style sundial with folded gnomon and compass. The sundial features engraved toponyms in Arabic and zodiac symbols. Debbane Palace museum, Lebanon

Astrology emerged in the 8th century CE as a distinct discipline in Islam,[37]: 64  with a mix of Indian, Hellenistic Iranian and other traditions blended with Greek and Islamic astronomical knowledge, for example Ptolemy's work and Al-Sufi's Book of Fixed Stars. A knowledge of the influence that the stars have on events on the earth was important in Islamic civilization. As a rule, it was believed that the signs of the zodiac and the planets control the destiny not only of people but also of nations, and that the zodiac has the ability to determine a person's physical characteristics as well as intelligence and personal traits.[38]

The practice of astrology at this time could be divided into 4 broader categories: Genethlialogy, Catarchic Astrology, Interrogational Astrology and General Astrology.[37]: 65  However the most common type of astrology was Genethlialogy, which examined all aspects of a person's life in relation to the planetary positions at their birth; more commonly known as our horoscope.[37]: 65 

Astrology services were offered widely across the empire, mainly in bazaars, where people could pay for a reading.[39] Astrology was valued in the royal courts, for example, the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mansur used astrology to determine the best date for founding the new capital of Baghdad.[37]: 66  Whilst horoscopes were generally widely accepted by society, many scholars condemned the use of astrology and divination, linking it to occult influences.[40] Many theologians and scholars thought that it went against the tenets of Islam; as only God should be able to determine events rather than astrologers looking at the positions of the planets.[39]

In order to calculate someone's horoscope, an astrologer would use 3 tools: an astrolabe, ephemeris and a takht. First, the astrologer would use an astrolabe to find the position of the sun, align the rule with the persons time of birth and then align the rete to establish the altitude of the sun on that date.[41] Next, the astrologer would use an Ephemeris, a table denoting the mean position of the planets and stars within the sky at any given time.[42] Finally, the astrologer would add the altitude of the sun taken from the astrolabe, with the mean position of the planets on the person's birthday, and add them together on the takht (also known as the dustboard).[42] The dust board was merely a tablet covered in sand; on which the calculations could be made and erased easily.[39] Once this had been calculated, the astrologer was then able to interpret the horoscope. Most of these interpretations were based on the zodiac in literature. For example, there were several manuals on how to interpret each zodiac sign, the treatise relating to each individual sign and what the characteristics of these zodiacs were.[39]

Early modern

 
A volvella of the moon. A volvella is a moveable device for working out the position of the Sun and Moon in the zodiac, 15th century
 
17th-century fresco of Christ in the zodiac circle, Cathedral of Living Pillar, Georgia

An example of the use of signs as astronomical coordinates may be found in the Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris for the year 1767. The "Longitude of the Sun" columns show the sign (represented as a digit from 0 to and including 11), degrees from 0 to 29, minutes, and seconds.[43]

The zodiac symbols are Early Modern simplifications of conventional pictorial representations of the signs, attested since Hellenistic times.[citation needed]

Twelve signs

What follows is a list of the signs of the modern zodiac (with the ecliptic longitudes of their first points), where 0° Aries is understood as the vernal equinox, with their Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, and Babylonian names. But note that the Sanskrit and the name equivalents (after c.500 BC) denote the constellations only, not the tropical zodiac signs. The "English translation" isn't usually used by English speakers. The Latin names are standard English usage (except that "Capricorn" is used rather than "Capricornus").

House Unicode Character Ecliptic Longitude
(aλ < b)
Latin name Gloss Greek name (Romanization of Greek) Sanskrit name Sumero-Babylonian name[44]
1 ♈︎︎ Aries Ram Κριός (Krios) Meṣa (मेष) MUL LU.ḪUN.GA[45] "Agrarian Worker", Dumuzi
2 ♉︎︎ 30° Taurus Bull Ταῦρος (Tauros) Vṛṣabha (वृषभ) MULGU4.AN.NA "Divine Bull of Heaven"
3 ♊︎︎ 60° Gemini Twins Δίδυμοι (Didymoi) Mithuna (मिथुन) MULMAŠ.TAB.BA.GAL.GAL "Great Twins"
4 ♋︎︎ 90° Cancer Crab Καρκίνος (Karkinos) Karka (कर्क) MULAL.LUL "Crayfish"
5 ♌︎︎ 120° Leo Lion Λέων (Leōn) Siṃha (सिंह) MULUR.GU.LA "Lion"
6 ♍︎︎ 150° Virgo Maiden Παρθένος (Parthenos) Kanyā (कन्या) MULAB.SIN "The Furrow"* *"The goddess Shala's ear of grain"
7 ♎︎︎ 180° Libra Scales Ζυγός (Zygos) Tulā (तुला) MULZIB.BA.AN.NA "Scales"
8 ♏︎︎ 210° Scorpio Scorpion Σκoρπίος (Skorpios)[46] Vṛścika (वृश्चिक) MULGIR.TAB "Scorpion"
9 ♐︎︎ 240° Sagittarius (Centaur) Archer Τοξότης (Toxotēs) Dhanuṣa (धनुष) MULPA.BIL.SAG, Nedu "soldier"
10 ♑︎︎ 270° Capricornus Mountain Goat or "Goat-horned" Sea-Goat Αἰγόκερως (Aigokerōs) Makara (मकर) MULSUḪUR.MAŠ "Goat-Fish" of Enki
11 ♒︎︎ 300° Aquarius Water-Bearer Ὑδροχόος (Hydrokhoos) Kumbha (कुंभ) MULGU.LA "Great One", later "pitcher"
12 ♓︎︎ 330° Pisces 2 Fish[47] Ἰχθύες (Ikhthyes) Mīna (मीन) MULSIM.MAḪ "Tail of the Swallow"; DU.NU.NU "fish-cord"

The following table compares the Gregorian dates on which the Sun enters a sign in the Ptolemaic tropical zodiac, and a sign in the sidereal system proposed by Cyril Fagan.

 
The zodiac signs in a 16th-century woodcut

The beginning of Aries is defined as the moment of vernal equinox, and all other dates shift accordingly.[48] The precise Gregorian times and dates vary slightly from year to year as the Gregorian calendar shifts relative to the tropical year. These variations remain within less than two days' difference in the recent past and the near-future, vernal equinox in UT always falling either on 20 or 21 March in the period of 1797 to 2043, falling on 19 March in 1796 the last time and in 2044 the next. The vernal equinox has fallen on 20 March UT since 2008, and will continue to do so until 2043.[49]

 
Depiction of the southern hemisphere constellations in an 11th-century French manuscript (from the Limoges area, probably in the milieu of Adémar de Chabannes, fl. 1020–1034)
Name Symbol[50] Tropical zodiac[51][52] Sidereal zodiac
[undue weight? ][53]
Aries   21 March –
20 April
15 April –
15 May
Taurus   20 April –
21 May
16 May –
15 June
Gemini   21 May –
21 June
16 June –
15 July
Cancer   21 June –
23 July
16 July –
15 August
Leo   23 July –
23 August
16 August –
15 September
Virgo   23 August –
23 September
16 September –
15 October
Libra   23 September –
23 October
16 October –
16 November
Scorpio   23 October –
22 November
17 November –
15 December
Sagittarius   23 November –
22 December
16 December –
14 January
Capricorn   22 December –
20 January
15 January –
14 February
Aquarius   20 January –
19 February
15 February –
14 March
Pisces   19 February –
21 March
15 March –
14 April

As each sign takes up exactly 30 degrees of the zodiac, the average duration of the solar stay in each sign is one twelfth of a sidereal year, or 30.43 standard days. Due to Earth's slight orbital eccentricity, the duration of each sign varies appreciably, between about 29.4 days for Capricorn and about 31.4 days for Cancer (see Equation of time). In addition, because the Earth's axis is at an angle, some signs take longer to rise than others, and the farther away from the equator the observer is situated, the greater the difference. Thus, signs are spoken of as "long" or "short" ascension.[54]

Constellations

 
 
These two maps of the constellations, made two centuries apart, both show the zodiac constellations along a curved line representing the ecliptic.
 
18th-century star chart illustrating the feet of Ophiuchus crossing the ecliptic

In tropical astrology, the zodiacal signs are distinct from the constellations associated with them, not only because of their drifting apart due to the precession of equinoxes but because the physical constellations take up varying widths of the ecliptic, so the Sun is not in each constellation for the same amount of time.[55]: 25  Thus, Virgo takes up 5 times as much ecliptic longitude as Scorpius. The zodiacal signs are an abstraction from the physical constellations, and each represent exactly 112th of the full circle, but the time spent by the Sun in each sign varies slightly due to the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit.

Sidereal astrology remedies this by assigning the zodiac sign approximately to the corresponding constellation. This alignment needs re calibrating every so often to keep the alignment in place.

The ecliptic intersects with 13 constellations of Ptolemy's Almagest,[56] as well as of the more precisely delineated IAU designated constellations. In addition to the twelve constellations after which the twelve zodiac signs are named, the ecliptic intersects Ophiuchus,[57] the bottom part of which interjects between Scorpio and Sagittarius. Occasionally this difference between the astronomical constellations and the astrological signs is mistakenly reported in the popular press as a "change" to the list of traditional signs by some astronomical body like the IAU, NASA, or the Royal Astronomical Society. This happened in a 1995 report of the BBC Nine O'Clock News and various reports in 2011 and 2016.[58][59][60]

Some "parazodiacal" constellations are touched by the paths of the planets, leading to counts of up to 25 "constellations of the zodiac".[61] The ancient Babylonian MUL.APIN catalog lists Orion, Perseus, Auriga, and Andromeda. Modern astronomers have noted that planets pass through Crater, Sextans, Cetus, Pegasus, Corvus, Hydra, and Scutum, with Venus very rarely passing through Aquila, Canis Minor, Auriga, and Serpens.[61]

Some other constellations are mythologically associated with the zodiacal ones: Piscis Austrinus, The Southern Fish, is attached to Aquarius. In classical maps, it swallows the stream poured out of Aquarius' pitcher, but perhaps it formerly just swam in it. Aquila, The Eagle, was possibly associated with the zodiac by virtue of its main star, Altair. Hydra in the Early Bronze Age marked the celestial equator and was associated with Leo, which is shown standing on the serpent on the Dendera zodiac.[62] Corvus is the Crow or Raven mysteriously perched on the tail of Hydra.

Name IAU boundaries[63] Solar stay[63] Brightest star
Aries 19 April – 13 May 25 days Hamal
Taurus 14 May – 19 June 37 days Aldebaran
Gemini 20 June – 20 July 31 days Pollux
Cancer 21 July – 9 August 20 days Al Tarf
Leo 10 August – 15 September 37 days Regulus
Virgo 16 September – 30 October 45 days Spica
Libra 31 October – 22 November 23 days Zubeneschamali
Scorpius 23 November – 29 November 7 days Antares
Ophiuchus 30 November – 17 December 18 days Rasalhague
Sagittarius 18 December – 18 January 32 days Kaus Australis
Capricornus 19 January – 15 February 28 days Deneb Algedi
Aquarius 16 February – 11 March 24 days Sadalsuud
Pisces 12 March – 18 April 38 days Alpherg

Precession of the equinoxes

 
Path taken by the point of the March equinox along the ecliptic over the past 6,000 years

The zodiac system was developed in Babylonia, some 2,500 years ago, during the "Age of Aries".[17] At the time, it is assumed, the precession of the equinoxes was unknown. Contemporary use of the coordinate system is presented with the choice of interpreting the system either as sidereal, with the signs fixed to the stellar background, or as tropical, with the signs fixed to the point (vector of the Sun) at the March equinox.[19]

Western astrology takes the tropical approach, whereas Hindu astrology takes the sidereal one. This results in the originally unified zodiacal coordinate system drifting apart gradually, with a clockwise (westward) precession of 1.4 degrees per century.

For the tropical zodiac used in Western astronomy and astrology, this means that the tropical sign of Aries currently lies somewhere within the constellation Pisces ("Age of Pisces").

The sidereal coordinate system takes into account the ayanamsa, ayan meaning "transit' or 'movement', and amsa meaning 'small part', i.e. movement of equinoxes in small parts. It is unclear when Indians became aware of the precession of the equinoxes, but Bhāskara II's 12th-century treatise Siddhanta Shiromani gives equations for measurement of precession of equinoxes, and says his equations are based on some lost equations of Suryasiddhanta plus the equation of Munjaala.

The discovery of precession is attributed to Hipparchus around 130 BC. Ptolemy quotes from Hipparchus's now-lost work entitled "On the Displacement of the Solstitial and Equinoctial Points" in the seventh book of his 2nd century astronomical text, Almagest, where he describes the phenomenon of precession and estimates its value.[30] Ptolemy clarified that the convention of Greek mathematical astronomy was to commence the zodiac from the point of the vernal equinox and to always refer to this point as "the first degree" of Aries.[64] This is known as the "tropical zodiac" (from the Greek word trópos, turn)[65] because its starting point revolves through the circle of background constellations over time.

The principle of the vernal point acting as the first degree of the zodiac for Greek astronomers is described in the 1st century BC astronomical text of Geminus of Rhodes. Geminus explains that Greek astronomers of his era associate the first degrees of the zodiac signs with the two solstices and the two equinoxes, in contrast to the older Chaldean (Babylonian) system, which placed these points within the zodiac signs.[64] This illustrates that Ptolemy merely clarified the convention of Greek astronomers and did not originate the principle of the tropical zodiac, as is sometimes assumed.

Ptolemy demonstrates that the principle of the tropical zodiac was well known to his predecessors within his astrological text, the Tetrabiblos, where he explains why it would be an error to associate the regularly spaced signs of the seasonally aligned zodiac with the irregular boundaries of the visible constellations:

The beginnings of the signs, and likewise those of the terms, are to be taken from the equinoctial and tropical points. This rule is not only clearly stated by writers on the subject, but is especially evident by the demonstration constantly afforded, that their natures, influences and familiarities have no other origin than from the tropics and equinoxes, as has been already plainly shown. And, if other beginnings were allowed, it would either be necessary to exclude the natures of the signs from the theory of prognostication, or impossible to avoid error in then retaining and making use of them; as the regularity of their spaces and distances, upon which their influence depends, would then be invaded and broken in upon.[32]

In modern astronomy

Astronomically, the zodiac defines a belt of space extending 8°[66] or 9° in celestial latitude to the north and south of the ecliptic, within which the orbits of the Moon and the principal planets remain.[67] It is a feature of the ecliptic coordinate system – a celestial coordinate system centered upon the ecliptic (the plane of the Earth's orbit and the Sun's apparent path), by which celestial longitude is measured in degrees east of the vernal equinox (the ascending intersection of the ecliptic and equator).[68] The zodiac is narrow in angular terms because most of the Sun's planets have orbits that have only a slight inclination to the orbital plane of the Earth.[69] Stars within the zodiac are subject to occultations by the Moon and other solar system bodies. These events can be useful, for example, to estimate the cross-sectional dimensions of a minor planet, or check a star for a close companion.[70]

The Sun's placement upon the vernal equinox, which occurs annually around 21 March, defines the starting point for measurement, the first degree of which is historically known as the "first point of Aries". The first 30° along the ecliptic is nominally designated as the zodiac sign Aries, which no longer falls within the proximity of the constellation Aries since the effect of precession is to move the vernal point through the backdrop of visible constellations (it is currently located near the end of the constellation Pisces, having been within that constellation since the 2nd century AD).[71] The subsequent 30° of the ecliptic is nominally designated the zodiac sign Taurus, and so on through the twelve signs of the zodiac so that each occupies 112th (30°) of the zodiac's great circle. Zodiac signs have never been used to determine the boundaries of astronomical constellations that lie in the vicinity of the zodiac, which are, and always have been, irregular in their size and shape.[67]

The convention of measuring celestial longitude within individual signs was still being used in the mid-19th century,[72] but modern astronomy now numbers degrees of celestial longitude continuously from 0° to 360°, rather than 0° to 30° within each sign.[73] This coordinate system is primary used by astronomers for observations of solar system objects.[74]

The use of the zodiac as a means to determine astronomical measurement remained the main method for defining celestial positions by Western astronomers until the Renaissance, at which time preference moved to the equatorial coordinate system, which measures astronomical positions by right ascension and declination rather than the ecliptic-based definitions of celestial longitude and celestial latitude. The orientation of equatorial coordinates are aligned with the Earth's axis of rotation, rather than the plane of the planet's orbit around the Sun.[71]

The word "zodiac" is used in reference to the zodiacal cloud of dust grains that move among the planets, and the zodiacal light that originates from their scattering of sunlight.[75] While its name is derived from the zodiac, the zodiacal light covers the entire night sky, with enhancements in certain directions.[76]

Unicode characters

In Unicode, the symbols of zodiac signs are encoded in block "Miscellaneous Symbols". They can be forced to look like text by appending U+FE0E, or like emojis by appending U+FE0F:[50]

Unicode character text emoji
U+2648 ARIES ♈︎ ♈️
U+2649 TAURUS ♉︎ ♉️
U+264A GEMINI ♊︎ ♊️
U+264B CANCER ♋︎ ♋️
U+264C LEO ♌︎ ♌️
U+264D VIRGO ♍︎ ♍️
U+264E LIBRA ♎︎ ♎️
U+264F SCORPIUS ♏︎ ♏️
U+2650 SAGITTARIUS ♐︎ ♐️
U+2651 CAPRICORN ♑︎ ♑️
U+2652 AQUARIUS ♒︎ ♒️
U+2653 PISCES ♓︎ ♓️
U+26CE OPHIUCHUS ⛎︎ ⛎️

See also

References

  1. ^ . Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 26 September 2016. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
  2. ^ Because the signs are each 30° in longitude but constellations have irregular shapes, and because of precession, they do not correspond exactly to the boundaries of the constellations after which they are named.
  3. ^ Noble, William (1902), "Papers communicated to the Association. The Signs of the Zodiac.", Journal of the British Astronomical Association, 12: 242–244, Bibcode:1902JBAA...12..242N
  4. ^ Leadbetter, Charles (1742), A Compleat System of Astronomy, J. Wilcox, London, p. 94; numerous examples of this notation appear throughout the book.
  5. ^ Skeat, Walter William (1924). A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. Clarendon Press. p. 622.
  6. ^ See MUL.APIN. See also Lankford, John; Rothenberg, Marc (1997). History of Astronomy: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-8153-0322-0.
  7. ^ Ptolemy, Claudius (1998). The Almagest. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-00260-6. Translated and annotated by G. J. Toomer; with a foreword by Owen Gingerich.
  8. ^ Shapiro, Lee T. "Constellations in the zodiac". NASA. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
  9. ^ Timberlake, Todd; Wallace, Paul (28 March 2019). Finding Our Place in the Solar System: The Scientific Story of the Copernican Revolution. Cambridge University Press. p. 33. ISBN 9781107182295.
  10. ^ van der Waerden, B. L. (1953). "History of the zodiac". Archiv für Orientforschung. 16: 216–230. Bibcode:1953ArOri..16..216V.
  11. ^ OED, citing J. Harris, Lexicon Technicum (1704): "Zodiack of the Comets, Cassini hath observed a certain Tract [...] within whose Bounds [...] he hath found most Comets [...] to keep."
  12. ^   One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainClerke, Agnes Mary (1911). "Zodiac". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 997.
  13. ^ Ossendrijver, Mathieu (2013). "Science, Mesopotamian" (PDF). The Encyclopedia of Ancient History. doi:10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah21289. ISBN 9781405179355. Retrieved 18 April 2022. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  14. ^ Britton, John P. (2010), "Studies in Babylonian lunar theory: part III. The introduction of the uniform zodiac", Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 64 (6): 617–663, doi:10.1007/S00407-010-0064-Z, JSTOR 41134332, S2CID 122004678, [T]he zodiac was introduced between −408 and −397 and probably within a very few years of −400.
  15. ^ Steele, John M. (2012) [2008], A Brief Introduction to Astronomy in the Middle East (electronic ed.), London: Saqi, ISBN 9780863568961
  16. ^ Plait, Phil (26 September 2016), "No, NASA hasn't changed the zodiac signs or added a new one", Bad Astronomy
  17. ^ a b Sachs, A. (1948). "A Classification of the Babylonian Astronomical Tablets of the Seleucid Period". Journal of Cuneiform Studies. University of Chicago Press. 2 (4): 271–290. doi:10.2307/3515929. JSTOR 3515929. S2CID 164038422.
  18. ^ Aaboe, Asger H. (2001), Episodes from the Early History of Astronomy, New York: Springer, pp. 37–38, ISBN 9780387951362
  19. ^ a b c d Rochberg, Francesca (1988), Babylonian Horoscopes, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 88, American Philosophical Society, pp. i–164, doi:10.2307/1006632, JSTOR 1006632
  20. ^ Aaboe, Asger H. (2001), Episodes from the Early History of Astronomy, New York: Springer, pp. 41–45, ISBN 9780387951362
  21. ^ Bullinger, E.W. The Witness of the Stars
  22. ^ Kennedy, D. James. The Real Meaning of the Zodiac.
  23. ^ Richard Hinckley Allen, Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning, Vol. 1 (New York: Dover Publications, 1899, p. 213-215.) argued for Scorpio having previously been called Eagle. for Scorpio.
  24. ^ Rogers, John H. "Origins of the ancient constellations: I. The Mesopotamian traditions." Journal of the British Astronomical Assoc. 108.1 (1998): 9–28. Astronomical Data Service.
  25. ^ Rogers, John H. "Origins of the ancient constellations: II. The Mesopotamian traditions." Journal of the British Astronomical Assoc. 108.2 (1998): 79–89. Astronomical Data Service.
  26. ^ Powell, Robert, Influence of Babylonian Astronomy on the Subsequent Defining of the Zodiac (2004), PhD thesis, summarized by anonymous editor, 21 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine.
  27. ^ Montelle, Clemency (2016), "The Anaphoricus of Hypsicles of Alexandria", in Steele, John M. (ed.), The Circulation of Astronomical Knowledge in the Ancient World, Time, Astronomy, and Calendars: Texts and Studies, vol. 6, Leiden: Brill, pp. 287–315, ISBN 978-90-0431561-7
  28. ^ Saliba, George (1994). A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam. New York: New York University Press. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-8147-8023-7.
  29. ^ Parker, Julia; Parker, Derek (1990). The New Compleat Astrologer. New York, NY: Crescent Books. p. 16. ISBN 978-0517697009.
  30. ^ a b Graßhoff, Gerd (1990). The History of Ptolemy's Star Catalogue. Springer. p. 73. ISBN 9780387971810.
  31. ^ Evans, James; Berggren, J. Lennart (2006). Geminos's Introduction to the Phenomena. Princeton University Press. p. 113. ISBN 069112339X.
  32. ^ a b Ashmand, J. M. (2011). Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos. Astrology Classics. p. 37 (I.XXV). ISBN 978-1461118251.
  33. ^ James Mill (1817). The History of British India. Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy. p. 409.
  34. ^ Schmidt, Robert H. "The Relation of Hellenistic to Indian Astrology". Project Hindsight. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
  35. ^ Dalal, Roshen (2010). Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide. Penguin Books India. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-14-341421-6.
  36. ^ King, David. 'Angers Cathedral', (book review of Karine Boulanger's 2010 book, Les Vitraux de la Cathédrale d'Angers, the 11th volume of the Corpus Vitrearum series from France), Vitemus: the only on-line magazine devoted to medieval stained glass, Issue 48, February 2011, retrieved 17 December 2013.
  37. ^ a b c d Ayduz, Salim (2014). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam. Oxford University Press.
  38. ^ Andalusi, Salem (1991). Science in the medical world: 'Book of the categories of nations. Austin: University of Texas Press. p. XXV.
  39. ^ a b c d Sardar, Marika. "Astronomy and Astrology in the Medieval Islamic World". Met Museum.
  40. ^ Varisco, Daniel Martin (2000). Selin, Helaine (ed.). Astronomy Across Cultures: The History of Non-Western Astrology. Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. p. 617. ISBN 978-94-010-5820-9.
  41. ^ WInterburn, Emily (August 2005). "Using an Astrolabe". Foundation for Science Technology and Civilisation: 7.
  42. ^ a b Saliba, George (1992). "The Role of the Astrologer in Medieval Islamic Society". Bulletin d'études orientales. 44: 50. JSTOR 41608345.
  43. ^ Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris for the year 1767. London: Board of Longitude, 1766.
  44. ^ MUL.APIN; Peter Whitfield, History of Astrology (2001); W. Muss-Arnolt, The Names of the Assyro-Babylonian Months and Their Regents, Journal of Biblical Literature (1892).
  45. ^ "ccpo/qpn/Agru[1]". oracc.iaas.upenn.edu.
  46. ^ Alternative form: Σκορπίων Skorpiōn. Later form (with synizesis): Σκορπιός.
  47. ^ American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 3rd ed., s.v. "Pisces."
  48. ^ ""Why is the vernal equinox called the "First Point of Aries" when the Sun is actually in Pisces on this date?"". University of Southern Maine. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  49. ^ See . The date in other time zones may vary.
  50. ^ a b "Zodiacal symbols in Unicode block Miscellaneous Symbols" (PDF). The Unicode Standard. 2010.
  51. ^ Powell, Robert (2017). History of the Zodiac. Sophia Academic Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-1597311526.
  52. ^ Dates are for a typical year; actual dates may vary by a day or so from year to year.
  53. ^ Not in use in either astronomy or mainstream astrology, based on Cyril Fagan, Zodiacs Old and New (1950).
  54. ^ Parker, Julia (2010) The Astrologer's Handbook. Alva Press, NJ. p. 10. ISBN 0916360598
  55. ^ James, Edward W. (1982). Patrick Grim (ed.). Philosophy of science and the occult. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0873955722.
  56. ^ Peters, Christian Heinrich Friedrich and Edward Ball Knobel. Ptolemy's Catalogue of Stars: a revision of the Almagest. 29 August 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1915. Ptolemy (1982) [2nd cent.]. "VII.5". In R. Catesby Taliaferro (ed.). Almagest. p. 239. Ptolemy refers to the constellation as Septentarius "the serpent holder".
  57. ^ Tatum, Jeremy B. (June 2010). "The Signs and Constellations of the Zodiac". Journal of the Royal Society of Canada. 104 (3): 103. Bibcode:2010JRASC.104..103T.
  58. ^ Kollerstrom, N. (October 1995). "Ophiuchus and the media". The Observatory. KNUDSEN; OBS. 115: 261–262. Bibcode:1995Obs...115..261K.
  59. ^ The notion received further international media attention in January 2011, when it was reported that astronomer Parke Kunkle, a board-member of the Minnesota Planetarium Society, had suggested that Ophiuchus was the zodiac's "13th sign". He later issued a statement to say he had not reported that the zodiac ought to include 13 signs instead of 12, but was only mentioning that there were 13 constellations; reported in Mad Astronomy: "Why did your zodiac sign change?" 13 January 2011.
  60. ^ Plait, Phil (26 September 2016). "No, NASA Didn't Change Your Astrological Sign". Slate Magazine.
  61. ^ a b Mosley, John (2011). "The Real, Real Constellations of the Zodiac". International Planetarium Society. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  62. ^ Rogers, J. H. (February 1998). "Origins of the ancient constellations: I. The Mesopotamian traditions". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 108 (1): 9–28. Bibcode:1998JBAA..108....9R.
    Rogers, J. H. (April 1998). "Origins of the ancient constellations: II. The Mediterranean traditions". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 108 (2): 79–89. Bibcode:1998JBAA..108...79R.
  63. ^ a b The Real Constellations of the Zodiac. Lee T. Shapiro, director of Morehead Planetarium University of North Carolina (Spring 1977)
  64. ^ a b Evans, James; Berggren, J. Lennart (2006). Geminos's Introduction to the Phenomena. Princeton University Press. p. 115. ISBN 069112339X.
  65. ^ "tropo-". Dictionary.com. Random House, Inc. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
  66. ^ Holmes, Charles Nevers (November 1914). "The Zodiac". Popular Astronomy. 22: 547–550. Bibcode:1914PA.....22..547H.
  67. ^ a b Encyclopædia Britannica. "Zodiac". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  68. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ecliptic". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  69. ^ "Zodiac". Cosmos. Swinburne University of Technology. Retrieved 31 May 2021.
  70. ^ "International Occultation Timing Association". 18 December 2017. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  71. ^ a b Encyclopædia Britannica. "Astronomical map". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  72. ^ G. Rubie (1830). The British Celestial Atlas: Being a Complete Guide to the Attainment of a Practical Knowledge of the Heavenly Bodies. Baldwin & Cradock. p. 79. The Longitude of a Celestial Object is reckoned on the Ecliptic, in signs and degrees, eastward from the first point of Aries.
  73. ^ The Astronomical Almanac for the Year 2017, Washington D. C.: U.S. Government Publishing Office, October 2015, pp. C6–C21, ISBN 978-0-7077-41666
  74. ^ Clark, Alan T.; et al. (2008). Observing Projects Using Starry Night Enthusiast (eighth ed.). W. H. Freeman. p. 42. ISBN 978-1-4292-1866-5.
  75. ^ Licquia, Timothy C.; Newman, Jeffrey A.; Brinchmann, Jarle (August 2015). "Unveiling the Milky Way: A New Technique for Determining the Optical Color and Luminosity of Our Galaxy". The Astrophysical Journal. 809 (1): 19. arXiv:1508.04446. Bibcode:2015ApJ...809...96L. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/809/1/96. S2CID 118455273. 96.
  76. ^ Edberg, Stephen J.; Levy, David H. (6 October 1994). Observing Comets, Asteroids, Meteors, and the Zodiacal Light. Cambridge University Press. p. 151. ISBN 9780521420037.

External links

  • "A Treatise on Zodiacal Signs and Constellations: Unique Jewels on the Benefits of Keeping Time" is a manuscript that dates back to 1831 with a focus on Arabic, Coptic and Syriac calendars.
  • Zodiac Constellations at Constellation Guide

zodiac, east, asian, zodiac, based, jovian, orbital, cycle, chinese, zodiac, other, uses, disambiguation, zodiac, belt, shaped, region, that, extends, approximately, north, south, measured, celestial, latitude, ecliptic, apparent, path, across, celestial, sphe. For the East Asian zodiac based on the Jovian orbital cycle see Chinese zodiac For other uses see Zodiac disambiguation The zodiac is a belt shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8 north or south as measured in celestial latitude of the ecliptic the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year The paths of the Moon and visible planets are within the belt of the zodiac 1 The Earth s orbit around the Sun causes the apparent motion of the latter along the ecliptic red Earth is axially tilted 23 4 relative to this plane its equator extended to the stars is shown in light blue Astrophotos of the twelve zodiac constellations In Western astrology and formerly astronomy the zodiac is divided into twelve signs each occupying 30 of celestial longitude and roughly corresponding to the following star constellations Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer Leo Virgo Libra Scorpio Sagittarius Capricorn Aquarius and Pisces 2 3 These astrological signs form a celestial coordinate system or more specifically an ecliptic coordinate system which takes the ecliptic as the origin of latitude and the Sun s position at vernal equinox as the origin of longitude 4 Contents 1 Name 2 Usage 3 History 3 1 Early history 3 2 Hebrew astronomy and astrology 3 3 Hellenistic and Roman era 3 4 Hindu zodiac 3 5 Middle Ages 3 6 Medieval Islamic era 3 7 Early modern 4 Twelve signs 5 Constellations 6 Precession of the equinoxes 7 In modern astronomy 8 Unicode characters 9 See also 10 References 11 External linksName EditThe English word zodiac derives from zōdiacus 5 the Latinized form of the Ancient Greek zōdiakos kyklos zῳdiakos kyklos citation needed meaning cycle or circle of little animals Zōdion zῴdion is the diminutive of zōon zῷon animal The name reflects the prominence of animals and mythological hybrids among the twelve signs Usage Edit Modern zodiac wheel showing the 12 signs used in horoscopic astrology The zodiac was in use by the Roman era based on concepts inherited by Hellenistic astronomy from Babylonian astronomy of the Chaldean period mid 1st millennium BC which in turn derived from an earlier system of lists of stars along the ecliptic 6 The construction of the zodiac is described in Ptolemy s comprehensive 2nd century AD work the Almagest 7 Although the zodiac remains the basis of the ecliptic coordinate system in use in astronomy besides the equatorial one 8 9 the term and the names of the twelve signs are today mostly associated with horoscopic astrology 10 The term zodiac may also refer to the region of the celestial sphere encompassing the paths of the planets corresponding to the band of about 8 arc degrees above and below the ecliptic The zodiac of a given planet is the band that contains the path of that particular body e g the zodiac of the Moon is the band of 5 above and below the ecliptic By extension the zodiac of the comets may refer to the band encompassing most short period comets 11 History EditFurther information Former constellation Early history Edit As early as the 14th century BC a complete list of the 36 Egyptian decans was placed among the hieroglyphs adorning the tomb of Seti I they figured again in the temple of Ramesses II and characterize every Egyptian astrological monument Both the famous zodiacs of Dendera display their symbols identified by Karl Richard Lepsius 12 A 6th century mosaic zodiac wheel in a synagogue incorporating Greek Byzantine elements Beit Alpha Israel Zodiac circle with planets c 1000 NLW MS 735C The division of the ecliptic into the zodiacal signs originates in Babylonian astronomy during the first half of the 1st millennium BC The zodiac draws on stars in earlier Babylonian star catalogues such as the MUL APIN catalogue which was compiled around 1000 BC Some constellations can be traced even further back to Bronze Age First Babylonian dynasty sources including Gemini The Twins from MAS TAB BA GAL GAL The Great Twins and Cancer The Crab from AL LUL The Crayfish among others citation needed Around the end of the 5th century BC Babylonian astronomers divided the ecliptic into 12 equal signs by analogy to 12 schematic months of 30 days each Each sign contained 30 of celestial longitude thus creating the first known celestial coordinate system According to calculations by modern astrophysics the zodiac was introduced between 409 and 398 BC during Persian rule 13 and probably within a very few years of 401 BC 14 Unlike modern astrologers who place the beginning of the sign of Aries at the position of the Sun at the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere March equinox Babylonian astronomers fixed the zodiac in relation to stars placing the beginning of Cancer at the Rear Twin Star b Geminorum and the beginning of Aquarius at the Rear Star of the Goat Fish d Capricorni 15 Due to the precession of the equinoxes the time of year the Sun is in a given constellation has changed since Babylonian times the point of March equinox has moved from Aries into Pisces 16 Because the division was made into equal arcs 30 each they constituted an ideal system of reference for making predictions about a planet s longitude However Babylonian techniques of observational measurements were in a rudimentary stage of evolution 17 They measured the position of a planet in reference to a set of normal stars close to the ecliptic 9 of latitude as observational reference points to help positioning a planet within this ecliptic coordinate system 18 In Babylonian astronomical diaries a planet position was generally given with respect to a zodiacal sign alone less often in specific degrees within a sign 19 When the degrees of longitude were given they were expressed with reference to the 30 of the zodiacal sign i e not with a reference to the continuous 360 ecliptic 19 In astronomical ephemerides the positions of significant astronomical phenomena were computed in sexagesimal fractions of a degree equivalent to minutes and seconds of arc 20 For daily ephemerides the daily positions of a planet were not as important as the astrologically significant dates when the planet crossed from one zodiacal sign to the next 19 Hebrew astronomy and astrology Edit Knowledge of the Babylonian zodiac is said to be reflected in the Hebrew Bible E W Bullinger interpreted the creatures appearing in the book of Ezekiel as the middle signs of the four quarters of the zodiac 21 22 with the Lion as Leo the Bull is Taurus the Man representing Aquarius and the Eagle representing Scorpio 23 Some authors have linked the twelve tribes of Israel with the same signs or the lunar Hebrew calendar having twelve lunar months in a lunar year Martin and others have argued that the arrangement of the tribes around the Tabernacle reported in the Book of Numbers corresponded to the order of the zodiac with Judah Reuben Ephraim and Dan representing the middle signs of Leo Aquarius Taurus and Scorpio respectively Such connections were taken up by Thomas Mann who in his novel Joseph and His Brothers attributes characteristics of a sign of the zodiac to each tribe in his rendition of the Blessing of Jacob citation needed Hellenistic and Roman era Edit The 1st century BC Dendera zodiac 19th century engraving The Babylonian star catalogs entered Greek astronomy in the 4th century BC via Eudoxus of Cnidus 24 25 Babylonia or Chaldea in the Hellenistic world came to be so identified with astrology that Chaldean wisdom became among Greeks and Romans the synonym of divination through the planets and stars Hellenistic astrology derived in part from Babylonian and Egyptian astrology 26 Horoscopic astrology first appeared in Ptolemaic Egypt 305 BC 30 BC The Dendera zodiac a relief dating to ca 50 BC is the first known depiction of the classical zodiac of twelve signs The earliest extant Greek text using the Babylonian division of the zodiac into 12 signs of 30 equal degrees each is the Anaphoricus of Hypsicles of Alexandria fl 190 BC 27 Particularly important in the development of Western horoscopic astrology was the astrologer and astronomer Ptolemy whose work Tetrabiblos laid the basis of the Western astrological tradition 28 Under the Greeks and Ptolemy in particular the planets Houses and signs of the zodiac were rationalized and their function set down in a way that has changed little to the present day 29 Ptolemy lived in the 2nd century AD three centuries after the discovery of the precession of the equinoxes by Hipparchus around 130 BC Hipparchus s lost work on precession never circulated very widely until it was brought to prominence by Ptolemy 30 and there are few explanations of precession outside the work of Ptolemy until late Antiquity by which time Ptolemy s influence was widely established 31 Ptolemy clearly explained the theoretical basis of the western zodiac as being a tropical coordinate system by which the zodiac is aligned to the equinoxes and solstices rather than the visible constellations that bear the same names as the zodiac signs 32 Hindu zodiac Edit According to mathematician historian Montucla the Hindu zodiac was adopted from the Greek zodiac through communications between ancient India and the Greek empire of Bactria 33 The Hindu zodiac uses the sidereal coordinate system which makes reference to the fixed stars The tropical zodiac of Mesopotamian origin is divided by the intersections of the ecliptic and equator which shifts in relation to the backdrop of fixed stars at a rate of 1 every 72 years creating the phenomenon known as precession of the equinoxes The Hindu zodiac being sidereal does not maintain this seasonal alignment but there are still similarities between the two systems The Hindu zodiac signs and corresponding Greek signs sound very different being in Sanskrit and Greek respectively but their symbols are nearly identical 34 For example dhanu means bow and corresponds to Sagittarius the archer and kumbha means water pitcher and corresponds to Aquarius the water carrier 35 Middle Ages Edit Angers Cathedral South Rose Window of Christ center with elders bottom half and zodiac top half Medieval stained glass by Andre Robin after the fire of 1451 During the Abbasid era Greek reference books were systematically translated into Arabic and Islamic astronomers then did their own observations correcting Ptolemy s Almagest One such book was Al Sufi s Book of Fixed Stars which has pictorial depictions of 48 constellations The book was divided into three sections constellations of the zodiac constellations north of the zodiac and southern constellations When Al Sufi s book and other works were translated in the 11th century there were mistakes made in the translations As a result some stars ended up with the names of the constellation they belong to e g Hamal in Aries The High Middle Ages saw a revival of interest in Greco Roman magic first in Kabbalism and later continued in Renaissance magic This included magical uses of the zodiac as found e g in the Sefer Raziel HaMalakh The zodiac is found in medieval stained glass as at Angers Cathedral where the master glass maker Andre Robin made the ornate rosettes for the North and South transepts after the fire there in 1451 36 Mughal king Jahangir issued an attractive series of coins in gold and silver depicting the twelve signs of the zodiac Medieval Islamic era Edit Ottoman style sundial with folded gnomon and compass The sundial features engraved toponyms in Arabic and zodiac symbols Debbane Palace museum Lebanon Astrology emerged in the 8th century CE as a distinct discipline in Islam 37 64 with a mix of Indian Hellenistic Iranian and other traditions blended with Greek and Islamic astronomical knowledge for example Ptolemy s work and Al Sufi s Book of Fixed Stars A knowledge of the influence that the stars have on events on the earth was important in Islamic civilization As a rule it was believed that the signs of the zodiac and the planets control the destiny not only of people but also of nations and that the zodiac has the ability to determine a person s physical characteristics as well as intelligence and personal traits 38 The practice of astrology at this time could be divided into 4 broader categories Genethlialogy Catarchic Astrology Interrogational Astrology and General Astrology 37 65 However the most common type of astrology was Genethlialogy which examined all aspects of a person s life in relation to the planetary positions at their birth more commonly known as our horoscope 37 65 Astrology services were offered widely across the empire mainly in bazaars where people could pay for a reading 39 Astrology was valued in the royal courts for example the Abbasid Caliph Al Mansur used astrology to determine the best date for founding the new capital of Baghdad 37 66 Whilst horoscopes were generally widely accepted by society many scholars condemned the use of astrology and divination linking it to occult influences 40 Many theologians and scholars thought that it went against the tenets of Islam as only God should be able to determine events rather than astrologers looking at the positions of the planets 39 In order to calculate someone s horoscope an astrologer would use 3 tools an astrolabe ephemeris and a takht First the astrologer would use an astrolabe to find the position of the sun align the rule with the persons time of birth and then align the rete to establish the altitude of the sun on that date 41 Next the astrologer would use an Ephemeris a table denoting the mean position of the planets and stars within the sky at any given time 42 Finally the astrologer would add the altitude of the sun taken from the astrolabe with the mean position of the planets on the person s birthday and add them together on the takht also known as the dustboard 42 The dust board was merely a tablet covered in sand on which the calculations could be made and erased easily 39 Once this had been calculated the astrologer was then able to interpret the horoscope Most of these interpretations were based on the zodiac in literature For example there were several manuals on how to interpret each zodiac sign the treatise relating to each individual sign and what the characteristics of these zodiacs were 39 Early modern Edit A volvella of the moon A volvella is a moveable device for working out the position of the Sun and Moon in the zodiac 15th century 17th century fresco of Christ in the zodiac circle Cathedral of Living Pillar Georgia An example of the use of signs as astronomical coordinates may be found in the Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris for the year 1767 The Longitude of the Sun columns show the sign represented as a digit from 0 to and including 11 degrees from 0 to 29 minutes and seconds 43 The zodiac symbols are Early Modern simplifications of conventional pictorial representations of the signs attested since Hellenistic times citation needed Twelve signs EditMain article Astrological sign What follows is a list of the signs of the modern zodiac with the ecliptic longitudes of their first points where 0 Aries is understood as the vernal equinox with their Latin Greek Sanskrit and Babylonian names But note that the Sanskrit and the name equivalents after c 500 BC denote the constellations only not the tropical zodiac signs The English translation isn t usually used by English speakers The Latin names are standard English usage except that Capricorn is used rather than Capricornus House Unicode Character Ecliptic Longitude a l lt b Latin name Gloss Greek name Romanization of Greek Sanskrit name Sumero Babylonian name 44 1 0 Aries Ram Krios Krios Meṣa म ष MUL LU ḪUN GA 45 Agrarian Worker Dumuzi2 30 Taurus Bull Taῦros Tauros Vṛṣabha व षभ MULGU4 AN NA Divine Bull of Heaven 3 60 Gemini Twins Didymoi Didymoi Mithuna म थ न MULMAS TAB BA GAL GAL Great Twins 4 90 Cancer Crab Karkinos Karkinos Karka कर क MULAL LUL Crayfish 5 120 Leo Lion Lewn Leōn Siṃha स ह MULUR GU LA Lion 6 150 Virgo Maiden Par8enos Parthenos Kanya कन य MULAB SIN The Furrow The goddess Shala s ear of grain 7 180 Libra Scales Zygos Zygos Tula त ल MULZIB BA AN NA Scales 8 210 Scorpio Scorpion Skorpios Skorpios 46 Vṛscika व श च क MULGIR TAB Scorpion 9 240 Sagittarius Centaur Archer To3oths Toxotes Dhanuṣa धन ष MULPA BIL SAG Nedu soldier 10 270 Capricornus Mountain Goat or Goat horned Sea Goat Aἰgokerws Aigokerōs Makara मकर MULSUḪUR MAS Goat Fish of Enki11 300 Aquarius Water Bearer Ὑdroxoos Hydrokhoos Kumbha क भ MULGU LA Great One later qa pitcher 12 330 Pisces 2 Fish 47 Ἰx8yes Ikhthyes Mina म न MULSIM MAḪ Tail of the Swallow DU NU NU fish cord The following table compares the Gregorian dates on which the Sun enters a sign in the Ptolemaic tropical zodiac and a sign in the sidereal system proposed by Cyril Fagan The zodiac signs in a 16th century woodcut The beginning of Aries is defined as the moment of vernal equinox and all other dates shift accordingly 48 The precise Gregorian times and dates vary slightly from year to year as the Gregorian calendar shifts relative to the tropical year These variations remain within less than two days difference in the recent past and the near future vernal equinox in UT always falling either on 20 or 21 March in the period of 1797 to 2043 falling on 19 March in 1796 the last time and in 2044 the next The vernal equinox has fallen on 20 March UT since 2008 and will continue to do so until 2043 49 Depiction of the southern hemisphere constellations in an 11th century French manuscript from the Limoges area probably in the milieu of Ademar de Chabannes fl 1020 1034 Name Symbol 50 Tropical zodiac 51 52 Sidereal zodiac undue weight discuss 53 Aries 21 March 20 April 15 April 15 MayTaurus 20 April 21 May 16 May 15 JuneGemini 21 May 21 June 16 June 15 JulyCancer 21 June 23 July 16 July 15 AugustLeo 23 July 23 August 16 August 15 SeptemberVirgo 23 August 23 September 16 September 15 OctoberLibra 23 September 23 October 16 October 16 NovemberScorpio 23 October 22 November 17 November 15 DecemberSagittarius 23 November 22 December 16 December 14 JanuaryCapricorn 22 December 20 January 15 January 14 FebruaryAquarius 20 January 19 February 15 February 14 MarchPisces 19 February 21 March 15 March 14 AprilAs each sign takes up exactly 30 degrees of the zodiac the average duration of the solar stay in each sign is one twelfth of a sidereal year or 30 43 standard days Due to Earth s slight orbital eccentricity the duration of each sign varies appreciably between about 29 4 days for Capricorn and about 31 4 days for Cancer see Equation of time In addition because the Earth s axis is at an angle some signs take longer to rise than others and the farther away from the equator the observer is situated the greater the difference Thus signs are spoken of as long or short ascension 54 Constellations Edit These two maps of the constellations made two centuries apart both show the zodiac constellations along a curved line representing the ecliptic 18th century star chart illustrating the feet of Ophiuchus crossing the ecliptic In tropical astrology the zodiacal signs are distinct from the constellations associated with them not only because of their drifting apart due to the precession of equinoxes but because the physical constellations take up varying widths of the ecliptic so the Sun is not in each constellation for the same amount of time 55 25 Thus Virgo takes up 5 times as much ecliptic longitude as Scorpius The zodiacal signs are an abstraction from the physical constellations and each represent exactly 1 12 th of the full circle but the time spent by the Sun in each sign varies slightly due to the eccentricity of the Earth s orbit Sidereal astrology remedies this by assigning the zodiac sign approximately to the corresponding constellation This alignment needs re calibrating every so often to keep the alignment in place The ecliptic intersects with 13 constellations of Ptolemy s Almagest 56 as well as of the more precisely delineated IAU designated constellations In addition to the twelve constellations after which the twelve zodiac signs are named the ecliptic intersects Ophiuchus 57 the bottom part of which interjects between Scorpio and Sagittarius Occasionally this difference between the astronomical constellations and the astrological signs is mistakenly reported in the popular press as a change to the list of traditional signs by some astronomical body like the IAU NASA or the Royal Astronomical Society This happened in a 1995 report of the BBC Nine O Clock News and various reports in 2011 and 2016 58 59 60 Some parazodiacal constellations are touched by the paths of the planets leading to counts of up to 25 constellations of the zodiac 61 The ancient Babylonian MUL APIN catalog lists Orion Perseus Auriga and Andromeda Modern astronomers have noted that planets pass through Crater Sextans Cetus Pegasus Corvus Hydra and Scutum with Venus very rarely passing through Aquila Canis Minor Auriga and Serpens 61 Some other constellations are mythologically associated with the zodiacal ones Piscis Austrinus The Southern Fish is attached to Aquarius In classical maps it swallows the stream poured out of Aquarius pitcher but perhaps it formerly just swam in it Aquila The Eagle was possibly associated with the zodiac by virtue of its main star Altair Hydra in the Early Bronze Age marked the celestial equator and was associated with Leo which is shown standing on the serpent on the Dendera zodiac 62 Corvus is the Crow or Raven mysteriously perched on the tail of Hydra Name IAU boundaries 63 Solar stay 63 Brightest starAries 19 April 13 May 25 days HamalTaurus 14 May 19 June 37 days AldebaranGemini 20 June 20 July 31 days PolluxCancer 21 July 9 August 20 days Al TarfLeo 10 August 15 September 37 days RegulusVirgo 16 September 30 October 45 days SpicaLibra 31 October 22 November 23 days ZubeneschamaliScorpius 23 November 29 November 7 days AntaresOphiuchus 30 November 17 December 18 days RasalhagueSagittarius 18 December 18 January 32 days Kaus AustralisCapricornus 19 January 15 February 28 days Deneb AlgediAquarius 16 February 11 March 24 days SadalsuudPisces 12 March 18 April 38 days AlphergPrecession of the equinoxes EditFurther information Axial precession Epoch astronomy Sidereal and tropical astrology Astrological age and Ayanamsa Path taken by the point of the March equinox along the ecliptic over the past 6 000 years The zodiac system was developed in Babylonia some 2 500 years ago during the Age of Aries 17 At the time it is assumed the precession of the equinoxes was unknown Contemporary use of the coordinate system is presented with the choice of interpreting the system either as sidereal with the signs fixed to the stellar background or as tropical with the signs fixed to the point vector of the Sun at the March equinox 19 Western astrology takes the tropical approach whereas Hindu astrology takes the sidereal one This results in the originally unified zodiacal coordinate system drifting apart gradually with a clockwise westward precession of 1 4 degrees per century For the tropical zodiac used in Western astronomy and astrology this means that the tropical sign of Aries currently lies somewhere within the constellation Pisces Age of Pisces The sidereal coordinate system takes into account the ayanamsa ayan meaning transit or movement and amsa meaning small part i e movement of equinoxes in small parts It is unclear when Indians became aware of the precession of the equinoxes but Bhaskara II s 12th century treatise Siddhanta Shiromani gives equations for measurement of precession of equinoxes and says his equations are based on some lost equations of Suryasiddhanta plus the equation of Munjaala The discovery of precession is attributed to Hipparchus around 130 BC Ptolemy quotes from Hipparchus s now lost work entitled On the Displacement of the Solstitial and Equinoctial Points in the seventh book of his 2nd century astronomical text Almagest where he describes the phenomenon of precession and estimates its value 30 Ptolemy clarified that the convention of Greek mathematical astronomy was to commence the zodiac from the point of the vernal equinox and to always refer to this point as the first degree of Aries 64 This is known as the tropical zodiac from the Greek word tropos turn 65 because its starting point revolves through the circle of background constellations over time The principle of the vernal point acting as the first degree of the zodiac for Greek astronomers is described in the 1st century BC astronomical text of Geminus of Rhodes Geminus explains that Greek astronomers of his era associate the first degrees of the zodiac signs with the two solstices and the two equinoxes in contrast to the older Chaldean Babylonian system which placed these points within the zodiac signs 64 This illustrates that Ptolemy merely clarified the convention of Greek astronomers and did not originate the principle of the tropical zodiac as is sometimes assumed Ptolemy demonstrates that the principle of the tropical zodiac was well known to his predecessors within his astrological text the Tetrabiblos where he explains why it would be an error to associate the regularly spaced signs of the seasonally aligned zodiac with the irregular boundaries of the visible constellations The beginnings of the signs and likewise those of the terms are to be taken from the equinoctial and tropical points This rule is not only clearly stated by writers on the subject but is especially evident by the demonstration constantly afforded that their natures influences and familiarities have no other origin than from the tropics and equinoxes as has been already plainly shown And if other beginnings were allowed it would either be necessary to exclude the natures of the signs from the theory of prognostication or impossible to avoid error in then retaining and making use of them as the regularity of their spaces and distances upon which their influence depends would then be invaded and broken in upon 32 In modern astronomy EditAstronomically the zodiac defines a belt of space extending 8 66 or 9 in celestial latitude to the north and south of the ecliptic within which the orbits of the Moon and the principal planets remain 67 It is a feature of the ecliptic coordinate system a celestial coordinate system centered upon the ecliptic the plane of the Earth s orbit and the Sun s apparent path by which celestial longitude is measured in degrees east of the vernal equinox the ascending intersection of the ecliptic and equator 68 The zodiac is narrow in angular terms because most of the Sun s planets have orbits that have only a slight inclination to the orbital plane of the Earth 69 Stars within the zodiac are subject to occultations by the Moon and other solar system bodies These events can be useful for example to estimate the cross sectional dimensions of a minor planet or check a star for a close companion 70 The Sun s placement upon the vernal equinox which occurs annually around 21 March defines the starting point for measurement the first degree of which is historically known as the first point of Aries The first 30 along the ecliptic is nominally designated as the zodiac sign Aries which no longer falls within the proximity of the constellation Aries since the effect of precession is to move the vernal point through the backdrop of visible constellations it is currently located near the end of the constellation Pisces having been within that constellation since the 2nd century AD 71 The subsequent 30 of the ecliptic is nominally designated the zodiac sign Taurus and so on through the twelve signs of the zodiac so that each occupies 1 12 th 30 of the zodiac s great circle Zodiac signs have never been used to determine the boundaries of astronomical constellations that lie in the vicinity of the zodiac which are and always have been irregular in their size and shape 67 The convention of measuring celestial longitude within individual signs was still being used in the mid 19th century 72 but modern astronomy now numbers degrees of celestial longitude continuously from 0 to 360 rather than 0 to 30 within each sign 73 This coordinate system is primary used by astronomers for observations of solar system objects 74 The use of the zodiac as a means to determine astronomical measurement remained the main method for defining celestial positions by Western astronomers until the Renaissance at which time preference moved to the equatorial coordinate system which measures astronomical positions by right ascension and declination rather than the ecliptic based definitions of celestial longitude and celestial latitude The orientation of equatorial coordinates are aligned with the Earth s axis of rotation rather than the plane of the planet s orbit around the Sun 71 The word zodiac is used in reference to the zodiacal cloud of dust grains that move among the planets and the zodiacal light that originates from their scattering of sunlight 75 While its name is derived from the zodiac the zodiacal light covers the entire night sky with enhancements in certain directions 76 Unicode characters EditIn Unicode the symbols of zodiac signs are encoded in block Miscellaneous Symbols They can be forced to look like text by appending U FE0E or like emojis by appending U FE0F 50 Unicode character text emojiU 2648 ARIES U 2649 TAURUS U 264A GEMINI U 264B CANCER U 264C LEO U 264D VIRGO U 264E LIBRA U 264F SCORPIUS U 2650 SAGITTARIUS U 2651 CAPRICORN U 2652 AQUARIUS U 2653 PISCES U 26CE OPHIUCHUS See also EditAstronomical symbols Chinese zodiac Circle of stars Cusp astrology Elements of the zodiac History of astrology Jewish astrology MazzarothReferences Edit zodiac Oxford Dictionaries Oxford University Press Archived from the original on 26 September 2016 Retrieved 19 September 2017 Because the signs are each 30 in longitude but constellations have irregular shapes and because of precession they do not correspond exactly to the boundaries of the constellations after which they are named Noble William 1902 Papers communicated to the Association The Signs of the Zodiac Journal of the British Astronomical Association 12 242 244 Bibcode 1902JBAA 12 242N Leadbetter Charles 1742 A Compleat System of Astronomy J Wilcox London p 94 numerous examples of this notation appear throughout the book Skeat Walter William 1924 A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language Clarendon Press p 622 See MUL APIN See also Lankford John Rothenberg Marc 1997 History of Astronomy An Encyclopedia Taylor amp Francis p 43 ISBN 978 0 8153 0322 0 Ptolemy Claudius 1998 The Almagest Princeton New Jersey Princeton University Press ISBN 0 691 00260 6 Translated and annotated by G J Toomer with a foreword by Owen Gingerich Shapiro Lee T Constellations in the zodiac NASA Retrieved 27 April 2011 Timberlake Todd Wallace Paul 28 March 2019 Finding Our Place in the Solar System The Scientific Story of the Copernican Revolution Cambridge University Press p 33 ISBN 9781107182295 van der Waerden B L 1953 History of the zodiac Archiv fur Orientforschung 16 216 230 Bibcode 1953ArOri 16 216V OED citing J Harris Lexicon Technicum 1704 Zodiack of the Comets Cassini hath observed a certain Tract within whose Bounds he hath found most Comets to keep One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain Clerke Agnes Mary 1911 Zodiac In Chisholm Hugh ed Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 28 11th ed Cambridge University Press p 997 Ossendrijver Mathieu 2013 Science Mesopotamian PDF The Encyclopedia of Ancient History doi 10 1002 9781444338386 wbeah21289 ISBN 9781405179355 Retrieved 18 April 2022 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a Missing or empty title help Britton John P 2010 Studies in Babylonian lunar theory part III The introduction of the uniform zodiac Archive for History of Exact Sciences 64 6 617 663 doi 10 1007 S00407 010 0064 Z JSTOR 41134332 S2CID 122004678 T he zodiac was introduced between 408 and 397 and probably within a very few years of 400 Steele John M 2012 2008 A Brief Introduction to Astronomy in the Middle East electronic ed London Saqi ISBN 9780863568961 Plait Phil 26 September 2016 No NASA hasn t changed the zodiac signs or added a new one Bad Astronomy a b Sachs A 1948 A Classification of the Babylonian Astronomical Tablets of the Seleucid Period Journal of Cuneiform Studies University of Chicago Press 2 4 271 290 doi 10 2307 3515929 JSTOR 3515929 S2CID 164038422 Aaboe Asger H 2001 Episodes from the Early History of Astronomy New York Springer pp 37 38 ISBN 9780387951362 a b c d Rochberg Francesca 1988 Babylonian Horoscopes Transactions of the American Philosophical Society vol 88 American Philosophical Society pp i 164 doi 10 2307 1006632 JSTOR 1006632 Aaboe Asger H 2001 Episodes from the Early History of Astronomy New York Springer pp 41 45 ISBN 9780387951362 Bullinger E W The Witness of the Stars Kennedy D James The Real Meaning of the Zodiac Richard Hinckley Allen Star Names Their Lore and Meaning Vol 1 New York Dover Publications 1899 p 213 215 argued for Scorpio having previously been called Eagle for Scorpio Rogers John H Origins of the ancient constellations I The Mesopotamian traditions Journal of the British Astronomical Assoc 108 1 1998 9 28 Astronomical Data Service Rogers John H Origins of the ancient constellations II The Mesopotamian traditions Journal of the British Astronomical Assoc 108 2 1998 79 89 Astronomical Data Service Powell Robert Influence of Babylonian Astronomy on the Subsequent Defining of the Zodiac 2004 PhD thesis summarized by anonymous editor Archived 21 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine Montelle Clemency 2016 The Anaphoricus of Hypsicles of Alexandria in Steele John M ed The Circulation of Astronomical Knowledge in the Ancient World Time Astronomy and Calendars Texts and Studies vol 6 Leiden Brill pp 287 315 ISBN 978 90 0431561 7 Saliba George 1994 A History of Arabic Astronomy Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam New York New York University Press p 67 ISBN 978 0 8147 8023 7 Parker Julia Parker Derek 1990 The New Compleat Astrologer New York NY Crescent Books p 16 ISBN 978 0517697009 a b Grasshoff Gerd 1990 The History of Ptolemy s Star Catalogue Springer p 73 ISBN 9780387971810 Evans James Berggren J Lennart 2006 Geminos s Introduction to the Phenomena Princeton University Press p 113 ISBN 069112339X a b Ashmand J M 2011 Ptolemy s Tetrabiblos Astrology Classics p 37 I XXV ISBN 978 1461118251 James Mill 1817 The History of British India Baldwin Cradock and Joy p 409 Schmidt Robert H The Relation of Hellenistic to Indian Astrology Project Hindsight Retrieved 4 July 2016 Dalal Roshen 2010 Hinduism An Alphabetical Guide Penguin Books India p 89 ISBN 978 0 14 341421 6 King David Angers Cathedral book review of Karine Boulanger s 2010 book Les Vitraux de la Cathedrale d Angers the 11th volume of the Corpus Vitrearum series from France Vitemus the only on line magazine devoted to medieval stained glass Issue 48 February 2011 retrieved 17 December 2013 a b c d Ayduz Salim 2014 The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Science and Technology in Islam Oxford University Press Andalusi Salem 1991 Science in the medical world Book of the categories of nations Austin University of Texas Press p XXV a b c d Sardar Marika Astronomy and Astrology in the Medieval Islamic World Met Museum Varisco Daniel Martin 2000 Selin Helaine ed Astronomy Across Cultures The History of Non Western Astrology Springer Science Business Media Dordrecht p 617 ISBN 978 94 010 5820 9 WInterburn Emily August 2005 Using an Astrolabe Foundation for Science Technology and Civilisation 7 a b Saliba George 1992 The Role of the Astrologer in Medieval Islamic Society Bulletin d etudes orientales 44 50 JSTOR 41608345 Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris for the year 1767 London Board of Longitude 1766 MUL APIN Peter Whitfield History of Astrology 2001 W Muss Arnolt The Names of the Assyro Babylonian Months and Their Regents Journal of Biblical Literature 1892 ccpo qpn Agru 1 oracc iaas upenn edu Alternative form Skorpiwn Skorpiōn Later form with synizesis Skorpios American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 3rd ed s v Pisces Why is the vernal equinox called the First Point of Aries when the Sun is actually in Pisces on this date University of Southern Maine Retrieved 9 February 2021 See Jean Meeus Astronomical Tables of the Sun Moon and Planets 1983 published by Willmann Bell Inc Richmond Virginia The date in other time zones may vary a b Zodiacal symbols in Unicode block Miscellaneous Symbols PDF The Unicode Standard 2010 Powell Robert 2017 History of the Zodiac Sophia Academic Press p 11 ISBN 978 1597311526 Dates are for a typical year actual dates may vary by a day or so from year to year Not in use in either astronomy or mainstream astrology based on Cyril Fagan Zodiacs Old and New 1950 Parker Julia 2010 The Astrologer s Handbook Alva Press NJ p 10 ISBN 0916360598 James Edward W 1982 Patrick Grim ed Philosophy of science and the occult Albany State University of New York Press ISBN 0873955722 Peters Christian Heinrich Friedrich and Edward Ball Knobel Ptolemy s Catalogue of Stars a revision of the Almagest Archived 29 August 2013 at the Wayback Machine Carnegie Institution of Washington 1915 Ptolemy 1982 2nd cent VII 5 In R Catesby Taliaferro ed Almagest p 239 Ptolemy refers to the constellation as Septentarius the serpent holder Tatum Jeremy B June 2010 The Signs and Constellations of the Zodiac Journal of the Royal Society of Canada 104 3 103 Bibcode 2010JRASC 104 103T Kollerstrom N October 1995 Ophiuchus and the media The Observatory KNUDSEN OBS 115 261 262 Bibcode 1995Obs 115 261K The notion received further international media attention in January 2011 when it was reported that astronomer Parke Kunkle a board member of the Minnesota Planetarium Society had suggested that Ophiuchus was the zodiac s 13th sign He later issued a statement to say he had not reported that the zodiac ought to include 13 signs instead of 12 but was only mentioning that there were 13 constellations reported in Mad Astronomy Why did your zodiac sign change 13 January 2011 Plait Phil 26 September 2016 No NASA Didn t Change Your Astrological Sign Slate Magazine a b Mosley John 2011 The Real Real Constellations of the Zodiac International Planetarium Society Retrieved 21 March 2017 Rogers J H February 1998 Origins of the ancient constellations I The Mesopotamian traditions Journal of the British Astronomical Association 108 1 9 28 Bibcode 1998JBAA 108 9R Rogers J H April 1998 Origins of the ancient constellations II The Mediterranean traditions Journal of the British Astronomical Association 108 2 79 89 Bibcode 1998JBAA 108 79R a b The Real Constellations of the Zodiac Lee T Shapiro director of Morehead Planetarium University of North Carolina Spring 1977 a b Evans James Berggren J Lennart 2006 Geminos s Introduction to the Phenomena Princeton University Press p 115 ISBN 069112339X tropo Dictionary com Random House Inc Retrieved 21 May 2015 Holmes Charles Nevers November 1914 The Zodiac Popular Astronomy 22 547 550 Bibcode 1914PA 22 547H a b Encyclopaedia Britannica Zodiac Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Retrieved 7 May 2015 Encyclopaedia Britannica Ecliptic Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Retrieved 7 May 2015 Zodiac Cosmos Swinburne University of Technology Retrieved 31 May 2021 International Occultation Timing Association 18 December 2017 Retrieved 6 March 2018 a b Encyclopaedia Britannica Astronomical map Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Retrieved 7 May 2015 G Rubie 1830 The British Celestial Atlas Being a Complete Guide to the Attainment of a Practical Knowledge of the Heavenly Bodies Baldwin amp Cradock p 79 The Longitude of a Celestial Object is reckoned on the Ecliptic in signs and degrees eastward from the first point of Aries The Astronomical Almanac for the Year 2017 Washington D C U S Government Publishing Office October 2015 pp C6 C21 ISBN 978 0 7077 41666 Clark Alan T et al 2008 Observing Projects Using Starry Night Enthusiast eighth ed W H Freeman p 42 ISBN 978 1 4292 1866 5 Licquia Timothy C Newman Jeffrey A Brinchmann Jarle August 2015 Unveiling the Milky Way A New Technique for Determining the Optical Color and Luminosity of Our Galaxy The Astrophysical Journal 809 1 19 arXiv 1508 04446 Bibcode 2015ApJ 809 96L doi 10 1088 0004 637X 809 1 96 S2CID 118455273 96 Edberg Stephen J Levy David H 6 October 1994 Observing Comets Asteroids Meteors and the Zodiacal Light Cambridge University Press p 151 ISBN 9780521420037 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Zodiac category A Treatise on Zodiacal Signs and Constellations Unique Jewels on the Benefits of Keeping Time is a manuscript that dates back to 1831 with a focus on Arabic Coptic and Syriac calendars Zodiac Constellations at Constellation Guide Portals Egypt Greece History Mathematics Science Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Zodiac amp oldid 1131589472, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.