Aries, my Mum's Star Sign

Aries. Just about - it's towards the end of its "passage" through Aries on that date, and in about 200 years' time the answer will be Pisces because of the Earth's precession.

The Earth precesses with a cycle of 26,000 years so in that time, what zodiac constellation the Sun is in on any particular date will move all the way round once. Precession is a wobble - the Earth wobbles a bit like a spinning top slowing down, just VEERRRYY slowly!

Of course this does not match what you see in newspaper horoscopes and that's because astrologers don't look at the real sky. They

a) assume all the constellations occupy 30 degrees each around the ecliptic when they clearly don't

b) ignore precession because nobody had worked out it happens when astrology was invented around 2,000 years ago

c) ignore Ophiuchus.

So they still say it's in Taurus on April 21.

Just out of interest while we're talking precession, the Earth would wobble around a lot more if there wasn't such a big Moon. The Moon's gravity helps keep it stable. Maybe we wouldn't have complex life without the Moon being there. There was a fascinating documentary on the BBC called "Do We Really Need The Moon?" and the answer is yes, we do! So if we're looking for planets that might have life, maybe having liquid water isn't enough, maybe also having a magnetic field to shield it from cosmic rays and prevent too many mutations isn't enough either, should we be looking for planets with unusually big moons?

Agreed, Aries.

Pisces/Taurus

The reason WHY the Sun is *off" by month or more is 5000 years of axial precession. Polaris was not the north star 5000 years ago.

EVERY thumb down CONFIRMS I am correct and you are willfully ignorant. You fail in your pathetic attempts to get me to lose my temper. That's hilarious. I am laughing AT you.

Aries.

Date of sun’s entry into each zodiacal constellation (and corresponding ecliptic longitude):

Dec 18, 2017: Sun enters constellation Sagittarius (266.59o)

Jan 19, 2018: Sun enters constellation Capricornus (299.71o)

Feb 16, 2018: Sun enters constellation Aquarius (327.88o)

Mar 12, 2018: Sun enters constellation Pisces (351.57o)

Apr 19, 2018: Sun enters constellation Aries (29.08o)

May 14, 2018: Sun enters constellation Taurus (53.46o)

Jun 21, 2018: Sun enters constellation Gemini (90.43o)

Jul 21, 2018: Sun enters constellation Cancer (118.25o)

Aug 10, 2018: Sun enters constellation Leo (138.18o)

Sep 17, 2018: Sun enters constellation Virgo (174.15o)

Oct 31, 2018: Sun enters constellation Libra (217.80o)

Nov 23, 2018: Sun enters constellation Scorpius (241.14o)

Nov 30, 2018: Sun enters constellation Ophiuchus (248.03o)

Dec 18, 2018: Sun enters constellation Sagittarius (266.60o)

Source: http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/dates-of-...