Astrological analysis

Ancient astrologers associated positive declination with good fortune, since it meant warmer days and more food.

Recent research, however, shows a correlation between world wars, booms and busts and negative declination, which means the winter months. Either astrologers have been getting it wrong for centuries, or we should all go to live in Australia!

It's the first day of spring today, the spring equinox, and also the first day of the new year for astrologers, since the sun now enters Aries, first sign of the zodiac. Although March 21 is always taken as the official day, the time when the sun enters Aries varies from year to year. The year is not 365 days long but a few hours and minutes more, leading to leap years; the result is that Aries starts on March 20 more often than the 21st, but this year it does fall on March 21 (at 1am).

From today, in the northern hemisphere at least, there is more daylight than darkness, and the sun gets a little higher in the sky each day. In other words, summer is coming. How high the sun gets is measured in 'degrees of declination': positive values for summer, and negative for winter when the sun is low. On March 21 and September 23, the spring and autumn equinoxes, declination is zero, and the 24-hour day is divided exactly into 12 hours of light and 12 of darkness. That's what 'equinox' means, in fact; 'equal night'.

The signs of the zodiac are actually counted from today, from the equinox, and not from the constellations – because the actual constellations are different sizes, which makes things difficult. Dividing the year into twelve from one spring equinox to the next gives signs of equal size, which is better.

Please double-check with the organisation before attending any events listed here - we cannot accept any responsibility for events changed/cancelled.

Are you holding an astrological event - especially one outside London!! - that you would like others to know about?
Send your diary events to Adam at zodiac1@blueyonder.co.uk with subject heading: Astro Events with website links.
Please note - we cannot promise to include ALL submissions but will do our best.

Graham Douglas is carrying out research into possible astrological relationships between the births of siblings in the same family. He is looking for sets of birth data for complete sets of brothers and sisters
of any age. If you are able to help please include date, time and place of birth, gender of the child,
and (if known) whether or not the birth was natural or induced in any way.
A report of the findings will be sent to anyone who requests it, when the investigation is completed.
The email address to contact is Grammino@Onetel.net.uk Many Thanks for your help.

If you missed any of Friday's Astronews articles, click here for Astronews Archives