Tag Archives: Astrology

The Astronomy behind Astrology

Posted on January 25, 2020 by Avery Bradley

While astrology is widely disproven as a form of science in our modern age, it has its origins in the beginnings of computational astronomy. As explained by David Lindberg in his book The Beginnings of Western Science, “By the end of the fifth century B.C., Babylonian celestial divination had expanded to embrace horoscopic astrology, whichContinue reading “The Astronomy behind Astrology” Continue reading →

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Retrograde motion probably isn’t ruining your life

Posted on February 10, 2019 by victoriayaden

It seems that anytime Mercury enters its period of retrograde motion, the Internet starts freaking out because according to astrologers, Mercury retrograde is bad for communication. Although this is a nice scapegoat for any misfortune one might encounter, there is no scientific evidence that this phenomenon has an effect on your day-to-day life. So what […] Continue reading →

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Earth’s Precession: Why Your Zodiac Sign is Wrong

Posted on January 20, 2019 by victoriayaden

When it comes to taking meaningless BuzzFeed quizzes or looking at Tumblr text posts about my zodiac sign, I am guilty as charged. There’s something satisfying about taking a quiz that tells you which limited edition Oreo flavor you are by your zodiac sign! (I’m apparently Gingerbread. Who knew?) I even know some people who … Continue reading Earth’s Precession: Why Your Zodiac Sign is Wrong → Continue reading →

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Planet X: The Real 9th Planet?

Posted on April 7, 2018 by aquarianastronomy

With Pluto’s demotion to a “dwarf planet,” the solar system was left with 8 planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. It now seems that the number 8 may not survive for long, as researchers are now searching for a 9th planet that they think exists in the far-away outer solar system. […] Continue reading →

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Pluto: the Eccentric “Planet”

Posted on April 7, 2018 by aquarianastronomy

Most of us have heard of Pluto’s downgrade from the category of planet to “dwarf planet,” but it is less well-known why it was demoted. One of the main reasons had nothing to do with size and everything to do with Pluto’s strange orbit. Instead of orbiting with the sun roughly at the center of […] Continue reading →

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Retrograde Motion: Illusions and Jinxes

Posted on February 12, 2018 by aquarianastronomy

Understanding the heavens has proven confusing for countless generations of humans in part because of the illusions caused by our perspective from earth. For millennia, the majority opinion was a geocentric universe, where the sun, moon, planets, and stars revolved around the earth, since they all seemed to do so from the earth’s perspective. All […] Continue reading →

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The Influences of the Moon in Astronomy and Astrology

Posted on February 11, 2018 by aquarianastronomy

When one looks up their horoscope in the daily paper, predictions are made based on the sun signs. One of the many things these horoscopes miss is the powerful astrological influence of the moon, which in some cases is stronger than that of the sun. It’s not just pop culture astrology that overlooks the moon; […] Continue reading →

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Axial Precession and its Affects on Astrology

Posted on January 22, 2018 by aquarianastronomy

As the modern individual is likely well aware, the earth rotates in two very fundamental ways which affect our daily lives: it rotates every day and orbits the sun every year, forming these important means by which we keep track of time. However, one of the most interesting and confusing ways that the earth rotates […] Continue reading →

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Uranus: The Distant Ruler of Aquarius

Posted on January 19, 2018 by aquarianastronomy

This is Uranus, my favorite planet and the “ruler” of my astrological sign, Aquarius! Uranus is the 6th planet from the sun and one of the largest of our solar system, a cold, icy planet with peculiar rings that ushers the observer away from the inner planets into the farther regions of the solar system. […] Continue reading →

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Blog 0: Introduction

Posted on January 19, 2018 by Jeanie Zeng

Hello hello, My name is Jeanie and I’m a student at Vanderbilt taking ASTR 2110. This is my blog for the class. Despite the constant movement of the stars, I am still a Virgo (credit: Astrology Zone)   Continue reading →

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