It's a new year, and there's new Zodiac signs for many in 2011. Professor Parke Kunkle of the Minnesota Planetarium Society says the Zodiac has a date problem. If you imagine the Earth as a spinning top, the axis changes as it wobbles. 5,000 years later, it means the stars are not aligned, so those with a Libra horoscope are really a Virgo, and many others have a new Zodiac sign too.
"Right now its pointing this way, the North Star, but 3000 BC it was pointing differently. Now things have moved and the sun is in a different constellation. We're about a whole constellation off. And don’t forget Ophiuchus, astrology’s orphan. Ophiuchus has been a constellation for years and it just gets left out." - Kunkle said.
New zodiac sign dates:
Capricorn - January 20 to February 16
Aquarius - February 16 to March 11
Pisces - March 11 to April 18.
Aries - April 18 to May 13
Taurus - May 13 to June 21.
Gemini - June 21 to July 20
Cancer - July 20 to August 10
Leo - August 10 to September 16
Virgo - September 16 to October 30
Libra - October 30 to November 23
Scorpio - November 23 to November 29
Ophiuchus - November 29 to December 17
Sagittarius - December 17 to January 20
Betsy Blumenfeld of Mendota Heights, Minn. has been studying astrology for 30 years, and says most of the charting these days is done by computer. She also says most Western astrologers look not to the stars, but to the Earth. For the astrologer and the astronomer, it seems the stars will never align -- the age-old battle between science and mysticism, and yet both keep looking.
"I'm having a blast, among other things it calls attention to astronomy." - Kunkle said
“The Earth spins and, like a toy top, the spin axis moves around, pointing in different directions. Today, Earth's spin axis points toward the pole star, Polaris. Around 3000 BC Earth's spin axis pointed toward Thuban. Wait 26,000 years and the north star will again be Thuban. Astronomers call this motion of the spin axis precession. About 130 BC, Hipparchus noticed that the Earth's spin axis had changed directions, so astronomers and astrologers have known about the Earth's precession for over 2000 years."
“But this means that if the sun was in a certain constellation on a particular date, it is in a different constellation on that date today. For example, the sun was in Pisces on March 1, 2000 BC but it is in Aquarius on March 1, 2011 AD.”
