Stellarium

Sun position on July 6 2016 is in Gemini

Asked by Yashvant Jani

Hi, I was looking at Sun position today July 6 2016 and was expecting it to be in Cancer; it showed up in Gemini. I checked previous years and it is consistently in Gemini till July 21, while it should be in Cancer. Sun position is remaining in Cancer till August 19 time frame. Either Sun position is offset or the constellations are offset - I can't tell which one.

I am using Stellarium version 0.12.4 and I can't run version 0.14.3 because MAC OS has not blessed it.

Could you please check into the Sun position?
Thanking you in advance,
Best regards,
Yashvant Jani

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gzotti
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Alexander Wolf (alexwolf) said : 		#1

Sorry, but Stellarium is not astrological program, it's astronomical program.

Hint: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac

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Best gzotti (georg-zotti) said : 		#2

The sections of the ecliptic (signs of the Zodiac) are offset from the stars which gave them their name over 2000 years ago by about one constellation. Could you please check any basic astronomy textbook?

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Yashvant Jani (jani-yashvant) said : 		#3

Thank you Georg for clarifying that zodiac signs are about one constellation off set from their given names.

Thank you, Alexander, for sending the wiki link that describes the IAU boundaries in dates for the zodiacs signs. That reference is a good one to know.

Thank you for your help,
Yashvant Jani