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Πέμπτη 13 Ιανουαρίου 2011

What's your sign? Probably not what you think, thanks to the Earth's "wobble"

By BILL WARD, Star Tribune

A recent Harris Poll found that 31 percent of Americans believe in astrology. They're wrong -- although not necessarily in the way their detractors might cite.

The ancient Babylonians based zodiac signs on the constellation the sun was "in" on the day a person was born. During the ensuing millenniums, the moon's gravitational pull has made the Earth "wobble" around its axis, creating about a one-month bump in the stars' alignment.

The result?

"When [astrologers] say that the sun is in Pisces, it's really not in Pisces," said Parke Kunkle, a board member of the Minnesota Planetarium Society.