The sky on May 3, 1942 — as it really was
That day the Sun stood in Aries, while the horoscope says "Taurus". The gap is 23.1° of precession.
Bodies on the ecliptic (noon UTC)
- ☉︎ Sun — 42.4° · sign Taurus · constellation Aries
- ☽︎ Moon — 258.8° · sign Sagittarius · constellation Ophiuchus
- ☿︎ Mercury — 56.8° · sign Taurus · constellation Taurus
- ♀︎ Venus — 357.2° · sign Pisces · constellation Pisces
- ♂︎ Mars — 94.4° · sign Cancer · constellation Gemini
- ♃︎ Jupiter — 81.8° · sign Gemini · constellation Taurus
- ♄︎ Saturn — 59.3° · sign Taurus · constellation Taurus
- ☽︎ Moon 90% illuminated
astronomy-engine ephemerides (VSOP87/ELP), IAU 1930 constellation boundaries. Positions accurate to a fraction of a degree.
The day’s dossier, from real data
Checkable facts with a tag and a source; the classical reading is in the chart.
- The Moon that day [EXACT]
waning gibbous, 90% lit; the Moon was 361,087 km away.
astronomy-engine - How far Earth has travelled since [EXACT]
84.4 orbits of the Sun — 79,344 million km, that is 103,205 return trips to the Moon; 30,837 rotations of Earth; with the Sun — 612.8 billion km around the Galactic centre, 23.7 light-days.
29.78 km/s along the orbit; 230 km/s around the Galactic centre - Mars then and now [EXACT]
On that day Mars was 308 million km away; today it is 243 million km (closer by 1.3×).
astronomy-engine; checked against JPL Horizons for 2026-09-14 - When the sky repeats [EXACT]
Mars returns to that day’s point of its orbit on December 22, 2026; Jupiter — in 2037; a full moon exactly on this date — May 2, 2053
sidereal periods: Mars 686.98 d, Jupiter 11.862 yr - How far the sky has drifted since [EXACT]
The vernal point has shifted 4,248″ since that day; the real constellations now sit 23.1° away from the astrologers’ “signs”.
precession 50.29″/yr
Other dates
Computed from the date only; nothing about you is stored.