http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2011/01/taurus_is_the_new_gemini_why_y.html By Troy Reimink The Grand Rapids Press If your astrological forecast is inaccurate today, there's an explanation – other than the usual explanation of “it's all made up, anyway,” I mean. The Internet is all atwitter with news that threatens to upend the industries of horoscope writing, little symbolic knick-knack manufacturing and ill-considered lower-back Zodiac-sign tattooing: Your astrological sign isn't what you think it is. According to astronomers at the Minnesota Planetarium Society, here's how your date of birth aligns with the constellations: Capricorn: Jan. 20-Feb. 16 Aquarius: Feb. 16-March 11 Pisces: March 11-April 18 Aries: April 18-May 13 Taurus: May 13-June 21 Gemini: June 21-July 20 Cancer: July 20-Aug. 10 Leo: Aug. 10-Sept. 16 Virgo: Sept. 16-Oct. 30 Libra: Oct. 30-Nov. 23 Scorpio: Nov. 23-29 Ophiuchus: Nov. 29-Dec. 17 Sagittarius: Dec. 17-Jan. 20 Wait, 13 signs? Ophiuchus? Let's slow down. The system still observed by people who take astrology seriously dates to the Babylonians, who started with 13 and ditched Ophiuchus, the “snake handler,” because they wanted an even 12 to match the number of months in the year. But is the Age of Capricorn the new Age of Aquarius? Sure, but only if you want to be, like, technical about it. The origin of this discussion – “new zodiac sign dates” is a Google hot trend item, in case you're wondering – is a brief piece in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune in which an astronomer merely points out that the positions of constellations relative to the calendar, as observed by the Babylonians, no longer correspond to the dates they appear today. The ancient Babylonians based zodiac signs on the constellation the sun was "in" on the day a person was born. During the ensuing millenniums, the moon's gravitational pull has made the Earth "wobble" around its axis, creating about a one-month bump in the stars' alignment.
