Happy birthday, Ophiuchi!
As an amateur astronomer, one of my pet peeves is folks who confuse astronomy- the science of the heavens- with astrology, the pseudo-scientific superstition that usually manifests itself in the horoscope.
Incidentally, the position of the Sun relative to the "houses of the Zodiac-" the constellations through which its path as viewed from earth, the ecliptic, passes- has changed since the now-familiar alleged correspondence between constellations and months of the year was adopted thousands of years ago.
There's another problem with horoscopes, from a scientific point of view: there are actually thirteen houses of the Zodiac! Measurements hundreds of years ago weren't accurate enough to notice that the ecliptic just clips the corner of the constellation Ophiucus!
As it happens, the Sun is in Ophiucus right now. One interesting side effect of this annual even is that the earth gets hit with a harmless blast of helium from beyond the Solar System. NASA's ACE spacecraft is carefully studying the phenomenon.
Anyway...happy birthday, Ophiuchi!
Incidentally, the position of the Sun relative to the "houses of the Zodiac-" the constellations through which its path as viewed from earth, the ecliptic, passes- has changed since the now-familiar alleged correspondence between constellations and months of the year was adopted thousands of years ago.
There's another problem with horoscopes, from a scientific point of view: there are actually thirteen houses of the Zodiac! Measurements hundreds of years ago weren't accurate enough to notice that the ecliptic just clips the corner of the constellation Ophiucus!
As it happens, the Sun is in Ophiucus right now. One interesting side effect of this annual even is that the earth gets hit with a harmless blast of helium from beyond the Solar System. NASA's ACE spacecraft is carefully studying the phenomenon.
Anyway...happy birthday, Ophiuchi!
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