Zodiac
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See also: Zodiac (disambiguation)
Wheel of the zodiac: This 6th century mosaic pavement in a synagogue incorporates Greek-Byzantine elements, Beit Alpha, Israel.
小客车摇号查询The Earth in its orbit around the Sun caus the Sun to appear on the celestial sphere moving over the ecliptic (red), which is tilted with respect to the equator (blue).
In astronomy, the zodiac (Greek: ζῳδιακός, zōdiakos) is a circle of twelve 30° divisions of celestial longitude that are centered upon the ecliptic: the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the cour of the year. The paths of the Moon and visible planets also remain clo to the ecliptic, within the belt of the zodiac, which extends 8-9° north or south of the ecliptic, as measured in celestial latitude. Historically, the twelve divisions are called 安徽中考作文signs. Esntially, the zodiac is a celestial coordinate system, or more specifically an ecliptic coordinate system, which takes the ecliptic as the origin of latitude, and the position of the sun at vernal equinox as the origin of longitude.
Contents ▪ 1 Usage 2 History 2.1 Early history 2.2 Hellenistic and Roman era 2.3 Hindu zodiac 2.4 Middle Ages and early modern period ▪ 3 The twelve signs ▪ 4 Zodiacal constellations ▪ 5 Table of dates ▪ 6 Precession of the equinoxes ▪ 7 In modern astronomy ▪ 8 Mnemonics ▪ 9 Unicode characters ▪ 10 See also ▪ 11 References ▪ 12 External links |
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[edit] Usage
It is known to have been in u by the Roman era, bad on concepts inherited by Hellenistic astronomy from 成人艺术摄影Babylonian astronomy of the Chaldean period (mid-1st millennium BC), which, in turn, derived from an earlier system of lists of stars along the ecliptic.[1] The construction of the zodiac is described in Ptolemy's Almagest (2nd century AD).
The term zodiac derives from Latin zōdiacus, which in its turn comes from the Greek ζῳδιακὸς κύκλος (zōdiakos kuklos), meaning "circle of animals", derived from ζώδιον (zōdion), the diminutive of ζῶον (zōon) "animal". The name is motivated by the fact that half of the signs of the classical Greek zodiac are reprented as animals (besides two mythological hybrids).
Although the zodiac remains the basis of the ecliptic coordinate system in u in astronomy besides the equatorial one, the term and the names of the twelve signs are today mostly associated with horoscopic astrology.
The term "zodiac" may also refer to the region of the celestial sphere encompassing the paths of the planets corresponding to the band of about eight arc degrees above and below the ecliptic. The zodiac of a given planet is the band that contains the path of that particular body; e.g., the "zodiac of the Moon" is the band of five degrees above and below the ecliptic. By extension, the "zodiac of the comets" may refer to the band encompassing most short-period comets.[2]
[edit] History
Further information: Former constellations and Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning
[edit] Early history
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Main article: Babylonian zodiac
Further information: MUL.APIN
The division of the ecliptic into the zodiacal signs originates in Babylonian ("Chaldean") astronomy during the first half of the 1st millennium BC, likely during Median/"Neo-Babylonian" times (7th century BC),[3] The classical zodiac is a modification of the MUL.APIN catalogue, which was compiled around 1000 BC. Some of the constellations can be traced even further back, to Bronze Age (Old Babylonian) sources, including Gemini "The Twins", from MAŠ.TAB.BA.GAL.GAL "The Great Twins", and Cancer "The Crab", from AL.LUL "The Crayfish", among others.
Babylonian astronomers at some stage during the early 1st millennium BC divided the ecliptic into twelve equal zones of celestial longitude to create the first known celestial coordinate system: a coordinate system that boasts some advantages over modern systems (such as equatorial coordinate system). The Babylonian calendar as it stood in the 7th century BC assigned each month to a sign, beginning with the position of the Sun
at vernal equinox, which, at the time, was depicted as the Aries constellation ("加强沟通交流Age of Aries"), for which reason the first constellation is still called "Aries" even after the vernal equinox has moved away from the Aries constellation due to the slow precession of the Earth's axis of rotation.[4]
Knowledge of the Babylonian zodiac is also reflected in the Hebrew Bible. E. W. Bullinger interpreted the creatures appearing in the books of Ezekiel and Revelation as the middle signs of the four quarters of the Zodiac,[5][6] with the Lion as Leo, the Bull is Taurus, the Man reprenting Aquarius and the Eagle reprenting Scorpio.[7] Some authors have linked the twelve tribes of Israel with the twelve signs. Martin and others have argued that the arrangement of the tribes around the Tabernacle (reported in the Book of Numbers) corresponded to the order of the Zodiac, with Judah, Reuben, Ephraim, and Dan reprenting the middle signs of Leo, Aquarius, Taurus, and Scorpio, respectively.[8][9] Such connections were taken up by Thomas Mann, who in his novel Joph and His Brothers attributes characteristics of a sign of the zodiac to each tribe in his rendition of the Blessing of Jacob.
