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Thursday, June 15

Astrological Limbo

It's not unusual to find the moon or planets in Ophiuchus. Just before the autumnal equinox last summer, between September 14 and October 11, 1999, Mars spent 27 days within its borders -- neither in Sagittarius or Scorpius.

Astrologers recognize 12 zodiacal figures, or "houses," in which the moon and planets can exert their greatest influence over human affairs, but for a time last year, Mars wasn't in any of them.

A similar situation takes place in tonight's evening sky, only it's the moon that's in astrological limbo, and the horoscopic consequences are far more serious.

Here's why. After the date of birth, the second-most important piece of information needed in determining an individual's horoscope is whether the sun or moon is in the "first house" -- the sign that is about to rise above the horizon at the time and place of birth. For someone born today, his or her first house technically would be Ophiuchus, because the moon rises in that constellation just after sunset. One can only imagine the kind of future that awaits someone whose "first house" is the illegitimate Ophiuchus.

Moreover, as touched on in yesterday's column, each year the sun actually remains in Ophiuchus for a longer period than it does in Scorpius -- 18 days as opposed to seven. So if you were born between November 30 and December 17 your sun sign is Ophiuchus.

There is still one more difficulty about astrology that followers must either accept or dismiss. The dates assigned to the various astrological signs are all wrong. No one is really a Sagittarius, Virgo, Aries or what-have-you. In tomorrow's Skywatch, I'll tell you why this situation exists and what your real astrological sign is.

Sky Muse: A fourteenth constellation might also be considered an astrological player, albeit for a day. For about 16 hours on March 27, a small part of the sun's disk edges into Cetus the Whale. People born on this date, which is traditionally considered under the sign of Aries, can include cetacean in their sun sign.

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Jeff Kanipe is the author of A Skywatcher's Year, an astronomy guide just published by Cambridge University Press. He is a former editor at Astronomy and StarDate magazines and a writer for the Earth & Sky radio series.

The images in Skywatch are produced by Starry Night software.