The sky on May 17, 1951 — as it really was
That day the Sun stood in Taurus — sign and constellation agree here.
Bodies on the ecliptic (noon UTC)
- ☉︎ Sun — 55.8° · sign Taurus · constellation Taurus
- ☽︎ Moon — 185.1° · sign Libra · constellation Virgo
- ☿︎ Mercury — 31.4° · sign Taurus · constellation Pisces
- ♀︎ Venus — 97.3° · sign Cancer · constellation Gemini
- ♂︎ Mars — 57.0° · sign Taurus · constellation Taurus
- ♃︎ Jupiter — 5.5° · sign Aries · constellation Pisces
- ♄︎ Saturn — 175.7° · sign Virgo · constellation Virgo
- ☽︎ Moon 82% 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]
waxing gibbous, 82% lit; the Moon was 375,788 km away.
astronomy-engine - How far Earth has travelled since [EXACT]
75.4 orbits of the Sun — 70,850 million km, that is 92,157 return trips to the Moon; 27,536 rotations of Earth; with the Sun — 547.2 billion km around the Galactic centre, 21.1 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 375 million km away; today it is 243 million km (closer by 1.5×).
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 June 27, 2028; Jupiter — in 2034; a full moon exactly on this date — May 17, 2030
sidereal periods: Mars 686.98 d, Jupiter 11.862 yr - How far the sky has drifted since [EXACT]
The vernal point has shifted 3,780″ since that day; the real constellations now sit 23.2° away from the astrologers’ “signs”.
precession 50.29″/yr
Other dates
Computed from the date only; nothing about you is stored.