The sky on January 31, 1948 — as it really was
That day the Sun stood in Capricornus, while the horoscope says "Aquarius". The gap is 23.1° of precession.
Bodies on the ecliptic (noon UTC)
- ☉︎ Sun — 310.5° · sign Aquarius · constellation Capricornus
- ☽︎ Moon — 201.9° · sign Libra · constellation Virgo
- ☿︎ Mercury — 327.9° · sign Aquarius · constellation Aquarius
- ♀︎ Venus — 346.4° · sign Pisces · constellation Aquarius
- ♂︎ Mars — 154.2° · sign Virgo · constellation Leo
- ♃︎ Jupiter — 261.3° · sign Sagittarius · constellation Ophiuchus
- ♄︎ Saturn — 139.9° · sign Leo · constellation Leo
- ☽︎ Moon 66% 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]
last quarter, 66% lit; the Moon was 376,600 km away.
astronomy-engine - How far Earth has travelled since [EXACT]
78.7 orbits of the Sun — 73,941 million km, that is 96,177 return trips to the Moon; 28,737 rotations of Earth; with the Sun — 571.1 billion km around the Galactic centre, 22 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 106 million km away; today it is 244 million km (farther by 2.3×).
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 January 29, 2027; Jupiter — in 2031; a full moon exactly on this date — January 31, 2048
sidereal periods: Mars 686.98 d, Jupiter 11.862 yr - How far the sky has drifted since [EXACT]
The vernal point has shifted 3,960″ 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.