The sky on March 21, 1979 — as it really was
That day the Sun stood in Pisces, while the horoscope says "Aries". The gap is 23.6° of precession.
Bodies on the ecliptic (noon UTC)
- ☉︎ Sun — 0.3° · sign Aries · constellation Pisces
- ☽︎ Moon — 270.6° · sign Capricorn · constellation Sagittarius
- ☿︎ Mercury — 5.9° · sign Aries · constellation Pisces
- ♀︎ Venus — 320.9° · sign Aquarius · constellation Capricornus
- ♂︎ Mars — 347.1° · sign Pisces · constellation Aquarius
- ♃︎ Jupiter — 119.0° · sign Cancer · constellation Cancer
- ♄︎ Saturn — 159.0° · sign Virgo · constellation Leo
- ☽︎ Moon 50% 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, 50% lit; the Moon was 374,686 km away.
astronomy-engine - How far Earth has travelled since [EXACT]
47.5 orbits of the Sun — 44,677 million km, that is 58,113 return trips to the Moon; 17,364 rotations of Earth; with the Sun — 345.1 billion km around the Galactic centre, 13.3 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 349 million km away; today it is 246 million km (closer by 1.4×).
astronomy-engine; checked against JPL Horizons for 2026-09-14 - Solar cycle [ESTIMATE]
That day fell in solar cycle 21, on the rise to maximum (29% through the cycle).
SILSO smoothed minima - When the sky repeats [EXACT]
Mars returns to that day’s point of its orbit on February 13, 2028; Jupiter — in 2038; a full moon exactly on this date — March 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 2,376″ since that day; the real constellations now sit 23.6° away from the astrologers’ “signs”.
precession 50.29″/yr
Other dates
Computed from the date only; nothing about you is stored.