The sky on January 21, 1976 — as it really was
That day the Sun stood in Capricornus, while the horoscope says "Aquarius". The gap is 23.5° of precession.
Bodies on the ecliptic (noon UTC)
- ☉︎ Sun — 300.6° · sign Aquarius · constellation Capricornus
- ☽︎ Moon — 178.1° · sign Virgo · constellation Virgo
- ☿︎ Mercury — 304.5° · sign Aquarius · constellation Capricornus
- ♀︎ Venus — 264.2° · sign Sagittarius · constellation Ophiuchus
- ♂︎ Mars — 74.7° · sign Gemini · constellation Taurus
- ♃︎ Jupiter — 17.6° · sign Aries · constellation Pisces
- ♄︎ Saturn — 119.4° · sign Cancer · constellation Cancer
- ☽︎ Moon 77% 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, 77% lit; the Moon was 367,290 km away.
astronomy-engine - How far Earth has travelled since [EXACT]
50.7 orbits of the Sun — 47,649 million km, that is 61,979 return trips to the Moon; 18,519 rotations of Earth; with the Sun — 368 billion km around the Galactic centre, 14.2 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 112 million km away; today it is 246 million km (farther by 2.2×).
astronomy-engine; checked against JPL Horizons for 2026-09-14 - Solar cycle [ESTIMATE]
That day fell in solar cycle 20, on the decline (99% through the cycle).
SILSO smoothed minima - When the sky repeats [EXACT]
Mars returns to that day’s point of its orbit on November 2, 2026; Jupiter — in 2035; a full moon exactly on this date — January 21, 2038
sidereal periods: Mars 686.98 d, Jupiter 11.862 yr - How far the sky has drifted since [EXACT]
The vernal point has shifted 2,556″ since that day; the real constellations now sit 23.5° away from the astrologers’ “signs”.
precession 50.29″/yr
Other dates
Computed from the date only; nothing about you is stored.