The sky on April 21, 1986 — as it really was
That day the Sun stood in Aries, while the horoscope says "Taurus". The gap is 23.7° of precession.
Bodies on the ecliptic (noon UTC)
- ☉︎ Sun — 31.1° · sign Taurus · constellation Aries
- ☽︎ Moon — 170.1° · sign Virgo · constellation Leo
- ☿︎ Mercury — 4.9° · sign Aries · constellation Pisces
- ♀︎ Venus — 53.5° · sign Taurus · constellation Taurus
- ♂︎ Mars — 281.4° · sign Capricorn · constellation Sagittarius
- ♃︎ Jupiter — 343.5° · sign Pisces · constellation Aquarius
- ♄︎ Saturn — 248.8° · sign Sagittarius · constellation Ophiuchus
- ☽︎ Moon 88% 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, 88% lit; the Moon was 373,708 km away.
astronomy-engine - How far Earth has travelled since [EXACT]
40.5 orbits of the Sun — 38,019 million km, that is 49,452 return trips to the Moon; 14,776 rotations of Earth; with the Sun — 293.6 billion km around the Galactic centre, 11.3 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 127 million km away; today it is 245 million km (farther by 1.9×).
astronomy-engine; checked against JPL Horizons for 2026-09-14 - Solar cycle [ESTIMATE]
That day fell in solar cycle 21, on the decline (97% through the cycle).
SILSO smoothed minima - When the sky repeats [EXACT]
Mars returns to that day’s point of its orbit on September 7, 2027; Jupiter — in 2033; a full moon exactly on this date — April 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 2,016″ since that day; the real constellations now sit 23.7° away from the astrologers’ “signs”.
precession 50.29″/yr
Other dates
Computed from the date only; nothing about you is stored.