Cool Moon Facts by Whip

Real astronomy and dated history, with sources. Documented traditions and folklore. Modern lunar astrology · symbolic, not predictive.

Chart basics · Intermediate

Precession of the equinoxes

Also called precession

The slow circling of Earth's axis that moves the equinox west against the stars by about 1° every 72 years.

Earth's axis wobbles like a spinning top over about 26,000 years. The equinox point slides backwards through the constellations as it does, which is why tropical signs and zodiac constellations have drifted about 24° apart since the signs were named. It is also the whole difference between the tropical and sidereal zodiacs.

The astronomy
About 50.3 arcseconds a year at present.
  • Kind: Astronomy
  • Tradition: Astronomy
  • In this site’s birth chart: used

Related: Tropical zodiac, Sidereal zodiac, Ayanamsa, Constellations and signs

Written for Cool Moon Facts in its own words. An astrology source documents what astrologers believe or practise; it does not establish that astrology works.

All terms · Your birth chart

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