Cool Moon Facts by Whip

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

Chart basics · Signs · Beginner

Zodiac

The band of sky around the ecliptic, divided in astrology into twelve signs of 30° each.

The zodiac is the strip of sky, a few degrees either side of the ecliptic, where the Sun, Moon and planets are always found. Babylonian astronomers divided it into twelve equal parts named after constellations, and astrology still uses those twelve names. The signs are equal slices; the constellations they are named after are not.

Where sources differ
Tropical astrology fixes the signs to the equinox; sidereal astrology fixes them to the stars. The two now differ by about 24°.
  • Kind: Astronomy, Tradition
  • Tradition: Shared across Western traditions
  • In this site’s birth chart: used

Related: Zodiac sign, Tropical zodiac, Sidereal zodiac, 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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