The sky on May 20, 1959 — as it really was
That day the Sun stood in Taurus — sign and constellation agree here.
Bodies on the ecliptic (noon UTC)
- ☉︎ Sun — 58.7° · sign Taurus · constellation Taurus
- ☽︎ Moon — 209.7° · sign Libra · constellation Virgo
- ☿︎ Mercury — 43.4° · sign Taurus · constellation Aries
- ♀︎ Venus — 101.1° · sign Cancer · constellation Gemini
- ♂︎ Mars — 113.1° · sign Cancer · constellation Gemini
- ♃︎ Jupiter — 236.9° · sign Scorpio · constellation Libra
- ♄︎ Saturn — 276.2° · sign Capricorn · constellation Sagittarius
- ☽︎ Moon 94% 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, 94% lit; the Moon was 359,884 km away.
astronomy-engine - How far Earth has travelled since [EXACT]
67.4 orbits of the Sun — 63,324 million km, that is 82,367 return trips to the Moon; 24,611 rotations of Earth; with the Sun — 489.1 billion km around the Galactic centre, 18.9 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 304 million km away; today it is 243 million km (closer by 1.2×).
astronomy-engine; checked against JPL Horizons for 2026-09-14 - Solar cycle [ESTIMATE]
That day fell in solar cycle 19, near maximum (49% through the cycle).
SILSO smoothed minima - When the sky repeats [EXACT]
Mars returns to that day’s point of its orbit on February 3, 2027; Jupiter — in 2030; a full moon exactly on this date — May 20, 2027
sidereal periods: Mars 686.98 d, Jupiter 11.862 yr - How far the sky has drifted since [EXACT]
The vernal point has shifted 3,384″ since that day; the real constellations now sit 23.3° away from the astrologers’ “signs”.
precession 50.29″/yr
Other dates
Computed from the date only; nothing about you is stored.