New Zodiac Sign Ophiuchus Shifts Other Astrological Dates, Causes Identity Crisis

aolnews.com:

What's your sign? That easy-to-answer pickup line might be a little confusing, since astronomers now say the dates used to delineate zodiac signs need to be adjusted by about a month.

Read the whole story: aolnews.com

Comments

[Anthony Charles Capoccia]

02:19 PM on 01/15/2011

Fan this if you think it is inappropri­­ate for "professor­­s" to start hoaxes that proliferat­­e historical inaccuraci­­es in order to attack people's religious views (star worshipers­­, sometimes called Sabaeans, as the Harranian Sabaeans were a prominent group of them, Zoroastria­­ns were another, were one of the first religions, and besides starting scientific observatio­­n as we know it, were also one of the "people of the book" afforded religious protection in many holy books including the Quran).

Critical points:
1. It's not news - The stars didn't suddenly re-align. Ophiucus has been on the ecliptic for a very long time. Thanks for misleading the public hufpost.

2. It is Inaccurate - The Zodiacs and Constellat­­ions are two different things. Both the Tropical and the Sidereal Zodiacs are coordinate systems for locating objects in observatio­­nal ecliptic longitude, and which were divided into 12 signs of exactly 30 degrees each based on the significan­­ce of the number 12 to ancient cultures. There have never been any constellat­­ions of exactly 30 degrees in length. The Tropical Zodiac starts at the well-defin­­ed point of alignment between the celestial equator and ecliptic known as the Vernal Point, while the Sidereal uses a reference star, typically Spica to mark the start of Libra. Neither have signs that ARE constellat­­ions.

3. It is disingenuo­­us - This is a hoax. Let's promote knowledge of history instead of ignorance and confusion about it. Modern astrology bears no relation to ancient astrology which is foundation­­al to both science and religion.

[Jonno Milks]

09:50 PM on 01/14/2011

I waiting to hear about all the other mistakes mankind has been wrong about. Math & Science being at the top of the list.

[Russell Ohlhausen]

07:14 PM on 01/14/2011

OLD NEWS:
This “news blast” returns almost as reliably as Halley’s Comet and each time people panic in the streets claiming the sky is falling. We can always predict that this little misinformation meteor will dash across headlines with similar results each time. No reason to worry about your natal sign. What surprises me is that someone actually hauls it out as if it is a ‘shocking new discovery’, when all anyone has to do is run a Google search and find the identical story repeated over and over again through the years, 2007, 2003, 1999, 1994….there even books on this stuff. But suddenly it newsworthy? Maybe in the Babylonian Free Press, circa 200BC….

Every four or five years there is a news blitz to the effect that astrology as we know it has changed and we are no longer the sign are what we once were or thought we were, and astrology and all of our prognostications are wrong by default. Suddenly you are no longer a Leo and now you have to turn that Lion tattoo into a Crab. And to make matters worse, a new Zodiac invader, the “13th Zodiac sign” Ophiuchus, has entered the scene. Shock!…Awe!

R.L. Ohlhausen-The Astrologian

[SpuriusLartius]

03:43 PM on 01/14/2011

So that's why I haven't been feeling myself lately; I used to be Sagittarius, but now it seems that I am this new sign Ophiuchus. Go figure!

[Abena in Africa]

02:18 PM on 01/14/2011

But...but...Libra is so me. :(

[jonny8440]

02:01 PM on 01/14/2011

I think this is great news. My sign on the western zodiac is Gemini (the two-faced) and I was born in the year of the rat on the Chinese zodiac. So that makes me a "two-faced rat".
Here's hopin' the Chinese zodiac is screwed up too. Maybe this time I'll have a more noble description.

[LittleRedHenSez]

01:24 PM on 01/14/2011

Okay, I know it really is the name of a large constellation but doesn't anyone else think the name is pretty funny...I mean just leave out the 'i' and it's definitely the sign I feel I was born under....

[kwinter]

12:06 PM on 01/14/2011

I used to think my sign was Aquarius, and Aquarius was so TOTALLY ME!

I heard about this change, and thought I was now a Pisces. And, after I did some reading on Pisces, I found that Pisces is really so TOTALLY ME!

Then, I realized that I was mistaken, and that my sign wasn't changed to Pisces, it was actually changed to Capricorn.

I was a little upset, but after reading about Capricorns, it seems that Capricorn ... is the sign that is really, truly, absolutely .......... SO ... TOTALLY ... ME!

This is awesome!!!

[UserNameJane]

01:42 PM on 01/14/2011

You Totally cracked me up

[JohnnyPanic]

11:57 AM on 01/14/2011

On Learning That All Our Horoscopes Are Not What We Thought

As the sun and stars move, so does our fate,
Making room for the whale between the points
Of scorpion and arrow's sting of late
And shifting me, as if stripped of my joints
From being ram and lamb and being “I am,”
To being the fish whose bones write out the word
Which saves your from your much deserved God's damn,
Though you may love her voice, so like a bird.
I am become the great fish out of water,
That unexpected healer of the lame,
Though nowadays my miracles are hotter,
Being purely intellectual and tame.
But mark this day you learned the signs have changed
And your misfortunes all are rearranged.

[lennief]

12:25 PM on 01/14/2011

Bravo

[lennief]

11:34 AM on 01/14/2011

I'm hoping that most of these comments are just tongue in cheek. When someone explains to me just how stars scattered over incredible distances (with a very, very few exceptions such as the Pliadese (sp?) the stars in the constellations are just in line of sight now and in a few million years the night sky on Earth won't be recognizable) can affect what happens on Earth, I will worry about what my sign is. It can't be gravity - my desk has a stronger gravitational affect on me than a star millions of light years away has.
If it is the signs that matter (not the constellations themselves), then it really can't matter where the stars and our astrologers should stop pretending to make serious astronomical calculations. You can't have it both ways folks.
By the way, if you were born during WW II, and have had a formal reading done, did your seer take into account US War Time? I'd lay odds they didn't or even know it existed.

[Scott Wascher]

09:51 AM on 01/14/2011

I saw somewhere that supposedly if you were born before 2009, then your sign wasn't affected. It also depends which version of the zodiac you follow, eastern or western. Western is based on the seasons instead of the stars, so it wouldn't have changed.

[binspired]

09:07 AM on 01/14/2011

well I believe it..................the earth is in constant change but most want things to remain the same as they were 1000's of years ago. Now a good explanation why some don't even resemble their astrology sign..................and glad my stayed the same the new one's name is toooooooooo difficult

[Melynda Amann]

05:09 AM on 01/14/2011

I find this all fascinating... In fact so much so that a few years ago I wrote a song about the 13th sign aka Ophiuchus aka Serpentarius it is called ..... Serpentarius. Want to listen? Listen here! http://www.reverbnation.com/bybloodalone.

Serpentarius
by
By Blood Alone

The twelve signs don't align
as they scurry across the sky
70 or more are simply forgotten
what's this 13th sign
honored only for his plight
interpreting the dreams of those who surround him

As we look up to the sky so high
we correlate our lives with the night
as we calmly lie each night
Serpentarius we try

The eagle made his way
to strike him down and end his days
pluto wielding a great bolt of thunder
he tried to raise the dead
healing sick with serpent hands
robbing hell of its due souls heading under

the answers that we search inside to find
reveal themselves to us, causing fright
as we slowly die each night
Serpentarius we try to find the light

As we live our separate lives no ties
the universe survives spanning time
as we calmly lie each night
Serpentarius we die to find the light

all rights reserved by
By Blood Alone
http://www.bybloodalone.com

[easong]

02:25 AM on 01/14/2011

Oh no! Our nonsensical animal calendar personality profiling system invented by ancient Mesopotamian priests is missing one of it's 13 intended categories! The horror!

[mr help]

11:59 PM on 01/13/2011

Our calendar is a lunisolar (lunar/solar) calendar. A year is divided in days and also divided in months which are nothing more than the number of synodic months or lunar cycles in a year. There are approximately 12.368266 synodic months in a year, hence there are 12 true zodiac signs. Anyway, all measurement is approximation. I guess there are other systems, different emphasis and in some respect provide a higher level of accuracy.