The sky on May 17, 1955 — 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 — 355.7° · sign Pisces · constellation Pisces
- ☿︎ Mercury — 77.4° · sign Gemini · constellation Taurus
- ♀︎ Venus — 27.5° · sign Aries · constellation Pisces
- ♂︎ Mars — 84.4° · sign Gemini · constellation Taurus
- ♃︎ Jupiter — 115.3° · sign Cancer · constellation Gemini
- ♄︎ Saturn — 227.3° · sign Scorpio · constellation Libra
- ☽︎ Moon 25% 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 crescent, 25% lit; the Moon was 374,954 km away.
astronomy-engine - How far Earth has travelled since [EXACT]
71.4 orbits of the Sun — 67,090 million km, that is 87,266 return trips to the Moon; 26,075 rotations of Earth; with the Sun — 518.2 billion km around the Galactic centre, 20 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 361 million km away; today it is 244 million km (closer by 1.5×).
astronomy-engine; checked against JPL Horizons for 2026-09-14 - Solar cycle [ESTIMATE]
That day fell in solar cycle 19, right at the minimum (11% through the cycle).
SILSO smoothed minima - When the sky repeats [EXACT]
Mars returns to that day’s point of its orbit on November 5, 2026; Jupiter — in 2038; 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 3,564″ 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.