The sky on November 8, 1979 — as it really was
That day the Sun stood in Libra, while the horoscope says "Scorpio". The gap is 23.6° of precession.
Bodies on the ecliptic (noon UTC)
- ☉︎ Sun — 225.5° · sign Scorpio · constellation Libra
- ☽︎ Moon — 99.5° · sign Cancer · constellation Gemini
- ☿︎ Mercury — 245.7° · sign Sagittarius · constellation Scorpius
- ♀︎ Venus — 245.0° · sign Sagittarius · constellation Scorpius
- ♂︎ Mars — 144.6° · sign Leo · constellation Leo
- ♃︎ Jupiter — 156.8° · sign Virgo · constellation Leo
- ♄︎ Saturn — 174.0° · sign Virgo · constellation Virgo
- ☽︎ Moon 79% 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, 79% lit; the Moon was 389,217 km away.
astronomy-engine - How far Earth has travelled since [EXACT]
46.9 orbits of the Sun — 44,084 million km, that is 57,341 return trips to the Moon; 17,133 rotations of Earth; with the Sun — 340.5 billion km around the Galactic centre, 13.1 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 215 million km away; today it is 244 million km (farther by 1.1×).
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 (35% through the cycle).
SILSO smoothed minima - When the sky repeats [EXACT]
Mars returns to that day’s point of its orbit on November 16, 2026; Jupiter — in 2026; a full moon exactly on this date — November 8, 2041
sidereal periods: Mars 686.98 d, Jupiter 11.862 yr - How far the sky has drifted since [EXACT]
The vernal point has shifted 2,340″ 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.