The sky on September 17, 1989 — as it really was
That day the Sun stood in Virgo — sign and constellation agree here.
Bodies on the ecliptic (noon UTC)
- ☉︎ Sun — 174.6° · sign Virgo · constellation Virgo
- ☽︎ Moon — 22.9° · sign Aries · constellation Pisces
- ☿︎ Mercury — 188.8° · sign Libra · constellation Virgo
- ♀︎ Venus — 215.8° · sign Scorpio · constellation Virgo
- ♂︎ Mars — 178.6° · sign Virgo · constellation Virgo
- ♃︎ Jupiter — 98.2° · sign Cancer · constellation Gemini
- ♄︎ Saturn — 277.3° · sign Capricorn · constellation Sagittarius
- ☽︎ Moon 94% 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, 94% lit; the Moon was 359,689 km away.
astronomy-engine - How far Earth has travelled since [EXACT]
37.1 orbits of the Sun — 34,821 million km, that is 45,293 return trips to the Moon; 13,533 rotations of Earth; with the Sun — 268.9 billion km around the Galactic centre, 10.4 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 397 million km away; today it is 243 million km (closer by 1.6×).
astronomy-engine; checked against JPL Horizons for 2026-09-14 - Solar cycle [ESTIMATE]
That day fell in solar cycle 22, on the rise to maximum (31% through the cycle).
SILSO smoothed minima - When the sky repeats [EXACT]
Mars returns to that day’s point of its orbit on May 1, 2027; Jupiter — in 2036; a full moon exactly on this date — September 17, 2054
sidereal periods: Mars 686.98 d, Jupiter 11.862 yr - How far the sky has drifted since [EXACT]
The vernal point has shifted 1,836″ 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.