Zodiac signs
Pisces, and where it is located on the ecliptic line (red).
Looking at constellations is much like playing a giant game of connect the dots. Constellations, by definition, are clusters of bright stars seen with the naked eye in the night sky from Earth. These clusters, with a bit of imagination, appear to be images of instruments, animals, gods or goddesses. The images and their names originated from the different cultures who viewed them and recognised them to be alike to that of their deities. Early Greeks was one of the main cultures of whom most names of the constellations were adopted world wide. They named them after many of their heroes and characters from their myths and legends. Because of the Earth's own rotation and its orbit around the Sun, the constellations are divided into two groups: circumpolar and seasonal. Circumpolar constellations are the star clusters that never rise nor set with the movement of the Earth. Seasonal constellations are the constellations which rise and fall with the seasons and Sun. The star clusters you can see depend on where you are situated on the Earth; your latitude. It also depends on which hemisphere you are in. The northern and southern hemispheres hold different constellations to each other for example: the Southern Cross.
Out of the many constellations in the sky there are 12 signs of the zodiac that can be found among them. These are (in no particular order): Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. The word 'zodiac' is derived from the Greek word meaning 'circle of animals'. The zodiac were believed to have originated in Egypt and then adopted by the Babylonians. Early astrologers knew that it took 12 months, or lunar cycles as it was called then, for the Sun to sit again in its original position and that was when those astrologers identified 12 constellations that had the Sun cross through them during this process. They were also linked to the seasonal processes (eg. rain season, dry season, etc) and the astrologers named the constellations after people or animals that had an aspect to do with that season. So the zodiac were divided into four groups: fire signs-Aries, Sagittarius and Leo, water signs-Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces, air signs- Libra, Aquarius and Gemini and earth signs- Capricorn, Taurus and Virgo.
The star sign I am born under is Pisces (bottom right), the symbol of the fish. It is a water sign and comes under the time span from 20 February to 20 March in tropical astrology, and March 15 to April 14 in sidereal astrology. Meaning that those are the times when the Sun is found in Pisces along the ecliptic line. The ecliptic line is an imaginary line in the sky, mapping out the path that the Sun crosses this expanse. Starts and ends almost directly in the line from east to west. There have been many names for Pisces: Nunu (Babylonians), Mahik (Persians), Balik (Turks), etc. all meaning 'Fish'. In Greek mythology it is said that the Northern and Western fish of Pisces was Aphrodite and her son, Eros, took the form of fish to escape from the presence of the monstrous god, Typhoon. The constellation itself covers 889 square degrees in the sky. It is the last star cluster in the line of zodiac and is best seen at 9 pm in the month of November, near the end of the year. Pisces is seen as very important as it is the constellation in line with the Sun during Vernal Equinox (day and night are equal, occurring on March 21).
Out of the many constellations in the sky there are 12 signs of the zodiac that can be found among them. These are (in no particular order): Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. The word 'zodiac' is derived from the Greek word meaning 'circle of animals'. The zodiac were believed to have originated in Egypt and then adopted by the Babylonians. Early astrologers knew that it took 12 months, or lunar cycles as it was called then, for the Sun to sit again in its original position and that was when those astrologers identified 12 constellations that had the Sun cross through them during this process. They were also linked to the seasonal processes (eg. rain season, dry season, etc) and the astrologers named the constellations after people or animals that had an aspect to do with that season. So the zodiac were divided into four groups: fire signs-Aries, Sagittarius and Leo, water signs-Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces, air signs- Libra, Aquarius and Gemini and earth signs- Capricorn, Taurus and Virgo.
The star sign I am born under is Pisces (bottom right), the symbol of the fish. It is a water sign and comes under the time span from 20 February to 20 March in tropical astrology, and March 15 to April 14 in sidereal astrology. Meaning that those are the times when the Sun is found in Pisces along the ecliptic line. The ecliptic line is an imaginary line in the sky, mapping out the path that the Sun crosses this expanse. Starts and ends almost directly in the line from east to west. There have been many names for Pisces: Nunu (Babylonians), Mahik (Persians), Balik (Turks), etc. all meaning 'Fish'. In Greek mythology it is said that the Northern and Western fish of Pisces was Aphrodite and her son, Eros, took the form of fish to escape from the presence of the monstrous god, Typhoon. The constellation itself covers 889 square degrees in the sky. It is the last star cluster in the line of zodiac and is best seen at 9 pm in the month of November, near the end of the year. Pisces is seen as very important as it is the constellation in line with the Sun during Vernal Equinox (day and night are equal, occurring on March 21).