Zodiacs
- Aries
- Taurus
- Gemini
- Cancer
- Leo
- Virgo
- Libra
- Scorpio
- Sagittarius
- Capricorn
- Aquarius
- Pisces
| Horoscopes
When we look at the sky at night, we get the impression that the Earth is surrounded by an enormous sphere filled with scores of stars. Although this celestial sphere seems to be revolving slowly around us all the stars always appear in the same configurations called constellations, at the same fixed positions on the celestial sphere. However, there are also other celestial objects, which seem to be "traveling" across the celestial sphere. The moon is one of them, but there are also five planets that can be observed with the naked eye. These planets are Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus, and Mercury. Of course, although invisible at night, the sun is also moving across the sky.
The planets, including the moon and sun, were in old times called traveling stars, but today we simply call them the seven planets of antiquity. It appears to an Earth-based observer that in the course of one year, the sun completes a full revolution around a large circle on the celestial sphere. This circle is called the ecliptic orbit. The planets and the moon are always found on the sky within a narrow belt, 180 wide, centered on the ecliptic, called the zodiac. The area around it is called the zodiacal belt. The zodiacal belt is a celestial highway where the movement of all the planets, the sun and the moon takes place when observed from the Earth. Twelve zodiac constellations are placed along the ecliptic path traveling the zodiac belt. Their names are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces.
There are many ancient representations of zodiacs containing symbolic representations of horoscopes.
Millions of people check their personal horoscopes every day to find out what the future holds for them. Horoscopes are published in neswpapers, magazines books and websites. A person's horoscope, or birth chart as it is also called, depends on the time of the calendar year that they he was born in. The year is composed of twelve sections which make up the zodiac. Each section is called a sign. The zodiacs correspond to the twelve constellations. The constellations have changed over time. In our modern world, many of the constellations have been redefined so now every star in the sky is in exactly one constellation. In 1929, the International Astronomical Union adopted official constellation boundaries that defined the 88 official constellations that exist today.
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