[FOTZeiss] Fwd: Why did your zodiac sign change? We asked the astronomer who started it all

[Glenn A. Walsh]

FYI --

Why did your zodiac sign change? We asked the astronomer who started it all

http://io9.com/5733004/your-zodiac-sign-may-have-changed-this-week?skyline=true&s=i

gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://friendsofthezeiss.org >
Electronic Mail - < siderostat1989 at yahoo.com >
SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS, ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR:
  < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#news >
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh: 
  < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
  < http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
  < http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries: 
  < http://andrewcarnegie.tripod.com > 
* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh: 
  < http://incline.pghfree.net >
* Public Transit:
  < http://andrewcarnegie2.tripod.com/transit >


--- On Fri, 1/14/11, LARRY KLAES <ljk4 at MSN.COM> wrote:

> From: LARRY KLAES <ljk4 at MSN.COM>
> Subject: Fwd: Why did your zodiac sign change? We asked the astronomer who started it all
> To: HASTRO-L at listserv.wvu.edu
> Date: Friday, January 14, 2011, 1:15 PM
> ---------- Sent from AT&T
> Wireless using Windows Live Hotmail
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: io9
> Sent: 1/14/2011 5:18:49 PM
> To: ljk4 at msn.com
> Subject: Why did your zodiac sign change? We asked the
> astronomer who started it all
> [http://cache-03.gawkerassets.com/assets/base.v9/newsletter/img/io9_head.jpg]<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=2ff73c742f&e=0f4ac66834>
> By Charlie Jane Anders
> Why did your zodiac sign change? We asked the astronomer
> who started it all<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=a85f2f44c8&e=0f4ac66834>
> 
> [http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2011/01/340x_1horoscope0110.jpg]The
> internet is burning up with the news that the zodiac has
> been rearranged. There's a 13th sign, Ophiuchus, and people
> who think they're Virgos are actually Leos. What happened
> here? We talked to the astronomer who caused the fuss.
> 
> Today, Time<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=5fa37761d7&e=0f4ac66834>,
> MSNBC<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=7c9f5e515d&e=0f4ac66834>
> and tons of other online news outlets are buzzing about the
> "new" horoscope. The articles are full of vague explanations
> like, "The star doctors say Earth right now is in a totally
> different spot in relation to the sun and its equatorial
> alignment than it was 3,000 years ago." Or: "Because of the
> moon's gravitational pull on Earth, the alignment of the
> stars was pushed by about a month."
> 
> What on Earth is going on? And why does everybody suddenly
> have to work with a new version of the completely
> meaningless zodiac?
> 
> It seems to have started with this article in the
> Minneapolis Star-Tribune<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=31465dd22e&e=0f4ac66834>
> last weekend, in which one astronomer made some statements
> about the zodiac. Parke Kunkle is on the board of directors
> of the Minnesota Planetarium Society and teaches astronomy
> at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. Kunkle told
> the Star-Tribune the Earth's relation to the sun had changed
> since the Babylonians first created the zodiac.
> 
> We got in touch with Kunkle and asked him what he actually
> told the Star-Tribune. He said he was asked by the
> Star-Tribune to give them a few bits of information about
> astronomy, not realizing the article would become a huge
> discussion of astrology and the relationship between
> astronomy and astrology. And the main stuff he talked to the
> Star-Tribune about has to do with the phenomenon of
> "precession<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=f7dd86b8b2&e=0f4ac66834>."
> 
> Says Kunkle:
> 
> If you take a toy top and spin it, it spins around an axis
> and that axis tends to point in different directions. It
> moves around. That's what we call precession. So in Earth's
> case, right now, Earth's spin axis points towards Polaris,
> the North Star. But in 3000 BC, the Earth's axis pointed
> towards a different star, Thuban<http://gawker.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=f727d7f2a9&e=0f4ac66834>.
> And that majestic motion takes about 26,000 years. so if you
> went from 3,000 B.C. and waited 26,000 years, you'd have the
> north star Thuban again.
> 
> This phenomenon was first noticed around 130 B.C. by a
> Greek astronomer, Hipparchus of Nicea. And as a result, if
> you actually look at what stars were positioned behind the
> sun on a particular date, that would have been very
> different 5,000 years ago than it would today. "We're in a
> different constellation now and that is the typical sun
> sign," based on the sun's position when you were born.
> 
> And no, Parke Kunkle didn't tell the Star-Tribune that the
> zodiac ought to include 13 signs instead of 12 â especially
> since he doesn't believe in astrology at all. (He highly
> recommends Phil Plait's page about astrology<http://gawker.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=5208fd2dfd&e=0f4ac66834>.)
> He did mention that astronomers tend to reckon the sun's
> position with 13 constellations instead of 12, and Ophiuchus
> is the 13th. But in the current astrology zodiac, there are
> just 12. "I just mentioned that it's there, and astronomers
> actually count it... So if you actually watch the stars in
> the background of the sun, it actually does go through the
> constellation of Ophiuchus." He adds that the Babylonians
> probably had totally different constellations anyway.
> 
> Somehow, Kunkle's brief comments in the Star-Tribune
> article got morphed into "astronomer says the zodiac has to
> be revamped." As various people have pointed out, this means
> your entire personality is different than what you
> originally believed it was â you might be flighty instead
> of hard-working, or fishy instead of scorpionesque. Taylor
> Swift is an Ophiuchus<http://gawker.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=4f4e60122a&e=0f4ac66834>!
> 
> Such is the power that astronomers wield over all our
> fates.
> 
> [http://io9.com/?op=commentcount&id=5733004]<http://gawker.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=22b1b8fbfe&e=0f4ac66834>
> 
>  *   [http://cache-04.gawkerassets.com/assets/base.v9/newsletter/img/forward_button.jpg]
> <http://us1.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=13ef4739c5&e=0f4ac66834>
>  *   Share this:
>  *   [http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/base.v9/newsletter/img/digg_button.jpg]
> <http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=474924ddae&e=0f4ac66834>
>  *   [http://cache-01.gawkerassets.com/assets/base.v9/newsletter/img/facebook_button.jpg]
> <http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=0da892b19f&e=0f4ac66834>
>  *   [http://cache-02.gawkerassets.com/assets/base.v9/newsletter/img/twitter_button.jpg]
> <http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=d9d72b6e26&e=0f4ac66834>
> 
> 
> January 14th, 2011 Top Stories
> 
>  *   [http://cache-03.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2011/01/126x100_networkunicorn.jpg]
> <http://gawker.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=5e9a240eee&e=0f4ac66834>
> 10 devious new ways that computer hackers can control your
> machines (or fix them)<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=834575e6c7&e=0f4ac66834>
>  *   [http://cache-04.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2011/01/126x100_environmentalwritinglogo.jpg]
> <http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=5091d2b7db&e=0f4ac66834>
> Winners of io9's Environmental Writing Contest<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=f594d1bb6f&e=0f4ac66834>
>  *   [http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2011/01/126x100_zz3bee0c81.jpg]
> <http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=26a87104ed&e=0f4ac66834>
> First Look at Andrew Garfield in his Spider-Man Suit<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=82b9e331e2&e=0f4ac66834>
>  *   [http://cache-01.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2011/01/126x100_kato.jpg]
> <http://gawker.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=e4b9dbdaf6&e=0f4ac66834>
> Michel Gondry's new technique that could change the
> superhero movie forever: Kato-Vision!<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=eaaf79684d&e=0f4ac66834>
>  *   [http://cache-02.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2011/01/126x100_shutterstock_64222750.jpg]
> <http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=6725055820&e=0f4ac66834>
> Are virtual particles for real?<http://gawker.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=c8a8b7ec77&e=0f4ac66834>
> 
> More Stories on io9 »<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=d3828fd4fb&e=0f4ac66834>
> ljk4 at msn.com<mailto:ljk4 at msn.com>:
> Change your e-mail address<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/profile?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=40bd8f44a4&e=0f4ac66834>
> | Unsubscribe<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=40bd8f44a4&e=0f4ac66834&c=13ef4739c5>
> Gawker Media, 210 Elizabeth Street, Floor 4, New York, NY
> 10012
> Terms of use<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=5ec28cde4e&e=0f4ac66834>
> | Mailing List Policy<http://gawker.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=251e609e1dba3888b86c21cc8&id=4219cf9971&e=0f4ac66834>
>