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Signs Of The Zodiac
The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north and south celestial latitude of the ecliptic – the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. Within this zodiac belt appear the Moon and the brightest planets, along their orbital planes. The zodiac is divided along the ecliptic into 12 equal parts, called " signs", each occupying 30° of celestial longitude. These signs roughly correspond to the astronomical constellations with the following modern names: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. The signs have been used to determine the time of the year by identifying each sign with the days of the year the Sun is in the respective sign. In Western astrology, and formerly astronomy, the time of each sign is associated with different attributes. The zodiacal system and its angular measurement in 360 sexagesimal degree (°) or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earth's Orbit
Earth orbits the Sun at an astronomical unit, average distance of , or 8.317 light-second, light-minutes, in a retrograde and prograde motion, counterclockwise direction as viewed from above the Northern Hemisphere. One complete orbit takes days (1 sidereal year), during which time Earth has traveled .Jean Meeus, ''Astronomical Algorithms'' 2nd ed, (Richmond, VA: Willmann-Bell, 1998) 238. See Ellipse#Circumference. The formula by Ramanujan is accurate enough. Ignoring the influence of other Solar System bodies, Earth's orbit, also called Earth's revolution, is an ellipse with the Earth–Sun barycenter as one focus (geometry), focus with a current orbital eccentricity, eccentricity of 0.0167. Since this value is close to zero, the center of the orbit is relatively close to the center of the Sun (relative to the size of the orbit). As seen from Earth, the planet's orbital prograde motion makes the Sun diurnal motion, appear to move with respect to fixed stars, other star ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cancer (astrology)
Cancer (; , Latin for the " Crab") is the fourth astrological sign in the zodiac, originating from the constellation of Cancer. It spans from 90° to 120° celestial longitude. Under the tropical zodiac, the Sun transits this area between approximately June 22 and July 22. In astrology, Cancer is the cardinal sign of the Water trigon, which is made up of Cancer, Pisces, and Scorpio. It is one of the six negative signs, and its ruling planet is the Moon. Though some depictions of Cancer feature a lobster or crayfish, the sign is most often represented by the crab, based on the Karkinos. Cancer's opposite sign is Capricorn. Background Cancer is the fourth sign of the zodiac, which the sun enters at the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere Those who are born from approximately June 22 to July 22 (depending upon the year) are born under Cancer. Individuals born during these dates, depending on which system of astrology they subscribe to, may be called "Ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Babylonian Astronomy
Babylonian astronomy was the study or recording of celestial objects during the early history of Mesopotamia. The numeral system used, sexagesimal, was based on 60, as opposed to ten in the modern decimal system. This system simplified the calculating and recording of unusually great and small numbers. During the 8th and 7th centuries BC, Babylonian astronomers developed a new empirical approach to astronomy. They began studying and recording their belief system and philosophies dealing with an ideal nature of the universe and began employing an internal logic within their predictive planetary systems. This was an important contribution to astronomy and the philosophy of science, and some modern scholars have thus referred to this approach as a scientific revolution. This approach to astronomy was adopted and further developed in Greek and Hellenistic astrology. Classical Greek and Latin sources frequently use the term Chaldeans for the philosophers, who were cons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Degree (angle)
A degree (in full, a degree of arc, arc degree, or arcdegree), usually denoted by ° (the degree symbol), is a measurement of a plane (mathematics), plane angle in which one Turn (geometry), full rotation is 360 degrees. It is not an SI unit—the SI unit of angular measure is the radian—but it is mentioned in the SI Brochure, SI brochure as an Non-SI units mentioned in the SI, accepted unit. Because a full rotation equals 2 radians, one degree is equivalent to radians. History The original motivation for choosing the degree as a unit of rotations and angles is unknown. One theory states that it is related to the fact that 360 is approximately the number of days in a year. Ancient astronomers noticed that the sun, which follows through the ecliptic path over the course of the year, seems to advance in its path by approximately one degree each day. Some ancient calendars, such as the Iranian calendar, Persian calendar and the Babylonian calendar, used 360 days for a year. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sexagesimal
Sexagesimal, also known as base 60, is a numeral system with 60 (number), sixty as its radix, base. It originated with the ancient Sumerians in the 3rd millennium BC, was passed down to the ancient Babylonians, and is still used—in a modified form—for measuring time, angles, and geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinates. The number 60, a superior highly composite number, has twelve divisors, namely 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, and 60, of which 2, 3, and 5 are prime numbers. With so many factors, many fractions involving sexagesimal numbers are simplified. For example, one hour can be divided evenly into sections of 30 minutes, 20 minutes, 15 minutes, 12 minutes, 10 minutes, 6 minutes, 5 minutes, 4 minutes, 3 minutes, 2 minutes, and 1 minute. 60 is the smallest number that is divisible by every number from 1 to 6; that is, it is the lowest common multiple of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. ''In this article, all sexagesimal digits are represented as decimal numbers, e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest include planets, natural satellite, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxy, galaxies, meteoroids, asteroids, and comets. Relevant phenomena include supernova explosions, gamma ray bursts, quasars, blazars, pulsars, and cosmic microwave background radiation. More generally, astronomy studies everything that originates beyond atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere. Cosmology is a branch of astronomy that studies the universe as a whole. Astronomy is one of the oldest natural sciences. The early civilizations in recorded history made methodical observations of the night sky. These include the Egyptian astronomy, Egyptians, Babylonian astronomy, Babylonians, Greek astronomy, Greeks, Indian astronomy, Indians, Chinese astronomy, Chinese, Maya civilization, M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Astrology
Western astrology is the system of astrology most popular in Western countries. It is historically based on Ptolemy's '' Tetrabiblos'' (2nd century CE), which in turn was a continuation of Hellenistic and ultimately Babylonian traditions. Western astrology is largely horoscopic, that is, it is a form of divination based on the construction of a horoscope for an exact moment, such as a person's birth as well as location (since time zones may or may not affect a person's birth chart), in which various cosmic bodies are said to have an influence. Astrology in western popular culture is often reduced to sun sign astrology, which considers only the individual's date of birth (i.e. the "position of the Sun" at that date). Astrology is a pseudoscience and has consistently failed experimental and theoretical verification. Astrology was widely considered a respectable academic and scientific field before the Enlightenment, but modern research has found no consistent empirical basi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pisces (astrology)
Pisces (; ; ''Ikhthyes'', Latin for "fishes") is the twelfth and final astrological sign in the zodiac. It is a mutable sign. It spans 330° to 360° of celestial longitude. Under the tropical zodiac, the Sun (astrology), sun transits this area between about February 19 and March 20. In classical interpretations, the symbol of the fish is derived from the ichthyocentaurs, who aided Aphrodite when she was born from the sea. According to some tropical astrologers, the current astrological age is the Age of Pisces,Nicholas Campion, (1988) ''The Book of World Horoscopes'' Aquarian Press, Wellingborough while others maintain that currently it is the Age of Aquarius. Background While the astrological sign Pisces per definition runs from ecliptic longitude 330° to 0°, this position is now mostly covered by the constellation of Aquarius due to the precession from when the constellation and the sign coincided. Today, the First Point of Aries, or the March equinox, vernal equinox, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aquarius (astrology)
Aquarius (; , Latin for "water-bearer") is the eleventh astrological sign in the zodiac, originating from the constellation Aquarius. Under the tropical zodiac, the Sun is in the Aquarius sign between about January 20 and February 18. Aquarius is one of the three air signs, alongside Gemini and Libra. The ruling planets of Aquarius are Saturn (in traditional astrology alongside Capricorn), and Uranus (in modern astrology). It is a fixed air sign. The opposite sign of Aquarius is Leo. Myth The water carrier represented by the constellation Aquarius was originally Enki (or Ea) to the ancient Sumerians and Babylonia. In Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ..., this figure was interpreted as Ganymede, a beautiful Phrygian youth. Ganymede ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Capricorn (astrology)
Capricorn (; , Latin for "horned goat") is the tenth astrological sign in the zodiac out of twelve total zodiac signs, originating from the constellation of Capricornus, the goat. It spans the 270–300th degree of the zodiac, corresponding to celestial longitude. Under the tropical zodiac, the sun transits this area from around December 22 to January 19. Capricorn is one of the three earth signs, alongside Virgo and Taurus, a negative sign, and one of the four cardinal signs. Capricorn is ruled by the planet Saturn and its opposite sign is Cancer. Cultural significance In India, the zodiac sign of Capricorn is celebrated as the Makara Sankranti festival, also known in Nepal as Maghe Sankranti. The Indian astronomical calendar is not based on the western Gregorian or Julian date keeping system. The Gregorian calendar has fixed days in a year and does not accommodate difference in the actual solar year. Therefore, the festival is celebrated on either of January 13, 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sagittarius (astrology)
Sagittarius (; , Latin for "archer") is the ninth astrological sign, which is associated with the constellation Sagittarius (constellation), Sagittarius and spans 240–270th degrees of the zodiac. Under the tropical zodiac, the sun transits this sign between approximately November 22 and December 21. Greek mythology associates Sagittarius with the centaur Chiron, who mentored Achilles, a Ancient Greece Mythology, Greek hero of the Trojan War, in archery. Sagittarius, the half human and half horse, is the centaur of mythology, the learned healer whose higher intelligence forms a bridge between Earth and Heaven. Also known as the Archer, Sagittarius is represented by the symbol of a bow and arrow. Astrology Along with Aries and Leo, Sagittarius is a part of the Fire Trigon as well as the last of the reproductive trinity. It also follows Gemini and Virgo as third of the mutable signs, which are the signs that feature changeable quality. When Sagittarius is depicted as an archer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scorpio (astrology)
Scorpio (; , Latin for " scorpion") is the eighth astrological sign in the zodiac, originating from the constellation of Scorpius. It spans 210–240° ecliptic longitude. Under the tropical zodiac (most commonly used in Western astrology), the Sun transits this sign on average from October 23 to November 21. Depending on which zodiac system one uses, someone born under the influence of Scorpio may be called a ''Scorpio'' or ''Scorpionic''. Associations Scorpio is one of the water signs, the others being Cancer and Pisces. It is a fixed, negative sign. According to ''The Astrology Bible'', Scorpio's colors are deep red, maroon, black, and brown. Myth According to Greek mythology, its representation as a scorpion is related to the Greek legend of Orion and how a scorpion stung him to death (said to be why Orion sets as Scorpius rises in the sky). Another Greek myth recounts how a scorpion caused the horses of the Sun to bolt, when they were being driven by th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
