We all know that astrology is to observe the movement of stars in the sky, and how do we understand these phenomena? Let’s take a look at a brief introduction about astronomy today.
Whether they are Babylonians more than 2,500 years ago or today’s astronomers, there will be a common star observation point Imagine the universe as a sphere similar to the earth. It’s just that people in ancient times recognized this pattern, but today’s astronomers have boldly assumed and carefully verified whether they think the universe is a closed or open system, or the shape of the entire universe is flat or spherical, but they are observing When it comes to astronomical phenomena, today's astronomers still have the concept of a sphere. Although this concept is not scientific, it has made a significant contribution to astronomy for marking the position of stars. Although the earth is not the center of the universe, it is where we live and the starting point for measuring the distance and position of stars.
Astrology starts from the observation of celestial bodies, and believes that the movement and position of the planets in the sky have an impact on everything on the earth. If we want to understand astrology, then we have to start here.
The concept of the celestial sphere
When a person stands on the earth and looks up at the stars,It is found that the size of the stars in the night sky is similar to the distance. From a perspective, it seems that a semi-graphic eggshell is shrouded above the earth, and the stars are hung on the semi-circular sky. In fact, this is entirely because of the earth. It is caused by the ball itself. Through the research and development of astronomy, we also know that the stars we see are actually different in size. Some stars are even several times the size of the earth. Therefore, the brightness of the stars is related to the distance. However, due to the distance projection, from the earth When looking at the stars, they are actually the same.
However, the ancients did not understand the concept of projection, nor did they know that the earth itself was a sphere, let alone that the earth would rotate and revolve. Therefore, before the church recognized the discovery of Copernicus, , Kepler, etc., people always believed that the outer periphery of the earth was enveloped by an infinite celestial sphere, and the stars were attached to it and moved; It is a "planet", and the one that is fixed there is called a "star".
The extreme north of the celestial sphere also happened to be the extreme north of the earth. At that time, the star at the extreme north was also called "Polaris", but it is not the "Polaris" today. As astrologers discovered that stars actually move, this statement was quickly corrected. It turned out that the northern end of the celestial sphere was not fixed, and people realized that not only the planets on the celestial sphere were moving, but even the so-called stars. The location will change.
From the history of astrology, we know that in the Babylonian era more than 3,000 years ago, the north pole of the celestial sphere was Draco's alpha star instead of the current "Polaris". In fact, it was Because the earth’s rotation axis is not fixed in space, it rotates at a period of 26,000 years. Therefore, the position of the vernal equinox of and the north pole of the celestial sphere will also move at a very slow speed.This movement is called " precession ". And this concept also caused a split in astrology in the Greek era.
equatorial and ecliptic
★ celestial equator
several important celestial sphere coordinates are You must find out before you learn astrology. First of all, the ancients projected the concept of the equator on the earth onto the celestial sphere, thinking that there is also an equator on the celestial sphere, that is, dividing the celestial sphere into a line on the north and south sides. Today's astronomy and astrologers call it the "celestial equator." In fact, the celestial equator is the projection of the earth's equator on the celestial body. Today astronomers still use it as the dividing line between the north and south of the celestial sphere. It is called zero declination like the concept of the earth’s equator. It is from 0 to +90 degrees to the north of the celestial sphere (the North Star today). South is calculated from 0 to -90 degrees. With the representation of latitude, there is also the longitude, so that it is convenient for astronomers to record and observe.
The starting point of right ascension is a little more complicated. It is the intersection of the celestial equator and the ecliptic in the spring of the earth’s northern hemisphere (in autumn there is another point called the equinox. ) is the starting point ,On this day, the sun is shining on the earth’s equator on average, so day and night are equally divided, and astrologers also use this point as the starting point of the ascension to calculate the position of the stars in the sky.
★The ecliptic of astrology and astronomy
What is meant by the strong_span11, strong_span11, strong_span, and the early observation of the moon? The five planets, water, fire, and earth, are moving around very close orbits, so the Babylonians called this fixed orbit the "Zodiac", and used their imagination and familiar things to divide the orbits near the orbits. The group of stars are named rams, lions, scorpions, water bearers, horns, and fishes.
They divided this circular orbit into twelve equal parts. Each time the sun completes a circle, it will return to the vernal equinox at the beginning of spring, which is regarded as the beginning of a year. Therefore, in addition to the function of the calendar, the ecliptic is also a method of dividing regions on the celestial sphere to facilitate the observation of planets, solar eclipses, and lunar eclipses.
The earliest historical record of the zodiac appeared in Babylon culture. Babylonians used the sun's position on the zodiac to identify dates. The twelve constellations on the zodiac had the earliest functions of the twelfths on the calendar today. Months. Aries starting at the vernal equinox is considered the beginning of the year, and the day when the sun moves to Libra happens to be the equinox. The house of the zodiac has been spread since the Babylonian era,Through Greece, Rome, Egypt, etc., although the pattern or name of the zodiac constellation may be slightly different, its symbolic meaning and function are similar.
In astronomy, the sun and the planets and satellites of the entire solar system all orbit in an orbit that is quite close to the height and range. Astronomers call this orbital plane " ecliptic plane "(The ecliptic). These concepts actually follow the traditions of astrology and change them (astrology and astronomy were the same science before the sixteenth century). Almost all planets in the solar system have a small angle with the ecliptic plane, only Pluto has a 17-degree tilt with respect to the ecliptic plane. The orbits of planets in the solar system are centered on the sun and are elliptical. Astronomers have also discovered that, except for the high eccentricity of the orbits of Mercury and Pluto, the orbits of other planets are actually very close to a perfect circle. But we will still find that some planets stay in a certain constellation for a very long time, and even from the perspective of the earth, sometimes the planets will retreat. This is because the distance of the planet's revolution is not an equidistant perfect circle.
and Writing from "astrology book"
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