The sky on January 6, 1980 — as it really was
That day the Sun stood in Sagittarius, while the horoscope says "Capricorn". The gap is 23.6° of precession.
Bodies on the ecliptic (noon UTC)
- ☉︎ Sun — 285.3° · sign Capricorn · constellation Sagittarius
- ☽︎ Moon — 152.1° · sign Virgo · constellation Leo
- ☿︎ Mercury — 276.4° · sign Capricorn · constellation Sagittarius
- ♀︎ Venus — 318.2° · sign Aquarius · constellation Capricornus
- ♂︎ Mars — 164.8° · sign Virgo · constellation Leo
- ♃︎ Jupiter — 160.1° · sign Virgo · constellation Leo
- ♄︎ Saturn — 177.0° · sign Virgo · constellation Virgo
- ☽︎ Moon 84% 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, 84% lit; the Moon was 402,796 km away.
astronomy-engine - How far Earth has travelled since [EXACT]
46.7 orbits of the Sun — 43,931 million km, that is 57,143 return trips to the Moon; 17,074 rotations of Earth; with the Sun — 339.3 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 138 million km away; today it is 244 million km (farther by 1.8×).
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 (37% through the cycle).
SILSO smoothed minima - When the sky repeats [EXACT]
Mars returns to that day’s point of its orbit on January 14, 2027; Jupiter — in 2027; a full moon exactly on this date — January 6, 2042
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.