Is there a new astrology sign – Ophiuchus?
Ok, we have received many inquiries from the DailyHoroscope App users lately regarding the question of the new “astrology” sign.
The Question
Lately some prominent news channels picked up a story about 13-th sign Ophiuchus and that due to various reasons (we don’t want to get into that) the dates for the zodiac are wrong and have to be changed/moved/recalculated.
The wave of confusion hit the Internet. Being developers of a very popular horoscope app for smart phones, we felt we have to step in with some sort of explanation not only for people who wrote us wondering about this but for everybody. We ask you to share this story on Twitter and Facebook (use the badges) so that we can put an end to the confusion.
The Answer
Short answer for those who are not interested in the details:
There is no new astrological sign. Astrology and Astronomy are completely different things. Astronomical interpretation of the boundaries of the constellations is in no way equivalent to Astrological interpretation.
We let the common wisdom speak instead of us. So we give you a quote from Wikipedia:
Unlike the zodiac signs in astrology, which are all thirty degrees in length, the astronomical constellations vary widely in size. The boundaries of all the constellations in the sky were set by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1930. This was, in essence, a mapping exercise to make the work of astronomers more efficient, and the boundaries of the constellations are not therefore in any meaningful sense an ‘equivalent’ to the zodiac signs. Along with the twelve original constellations, the boundaries of a thirteenth constellation, Ophiuchus (the serpent bearer), were set by astronomers within the bounds of the zodiac. (source)
You can read the full Wikipedia article about different Astrological and Astronomical systems.
UPDATE: 01/14/2011 Some people reacted in comments that Wikipedia is not reliable source and criticized us for citing from Wikipedia. So to answer this:
- We quoted the wikipedia because we could not have said it better ourselves and many people still think Wikipedia actually is a very good source of reliable information – information that survived a lot of critique from millions of editors.
- For people who do not trust Wikipedia or what we say, we explain below that we follow Tropical zodiacal cycle and will keep following it and this “recent change” which is not a change but rather something that was known for long time does not apply to Tropical (Western) astrology. Once you know that, you are free to use any source you like to learn more about Tropical zodiac and the dates.
end of the update.
The mass confusion that the news about “new zodiac sign” caused when the news reached respectful publications is another example of a very bad journalism. Where journalists are running after sensation blindfolded and the editors join them in their hype hysteria and allow publishing of misleading information. This is another warning sign to never completely trust media!
Please help us STOP the mass confusion with “new zodiac sign”. Please share with your friends on Twitter and Facebook using the badges on the top and help us stop bad journalism and resolve the created confusion!
UPDATE (01/16/2011)
Although this is supposed to be more of a technical blog, considering the recent confusion, we decided to publish a more elaborate explanation about this whole confusion and why you should not be worried and why nothing has changed. Please read What’s my zodiac sign? Sorting out the Ophiuchus confusion.
DailyHoroscope App
We will not change anything and we will keep following Tropical zodiac system. If you are confused about your sign, when you click on a sign, for each one there is a range of dates when this sign is in effect. It is quite easy to find yours. We will consider adding a simple calculator like we have for Chinese and Druid signs to aid in Zodiac sign calculation in a future release due to this confusion.
If you have Android, iPhone, BlackBerry or Windows Phone 7 smart phone. You should try our DailyHoroscope app. It is a the most popular horoscope app on Android and BlackBerry. You can see the download options on this download page or you can use the badges below!
You can follow us on Twitter @comitic @DHiPhone @DHAndroid @DHBlackBerry
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