Stargazers from the Minnesota Planetarium Society (MPS) have revealed the alignment of the stars has been pushed out by about a month because of the moon's gravitational pull on Earth.

The 13th sign - known as Ophiuchus - represents a man wrestling a serpent and was discarded by the Babylonians because they only wanted 12 constellations.

The wobbling is caused by the "gravitational attraction of the Moon on Earth's equatorial bulge".

Over the past two-and-a-half millennia, this wobble has caused the intersection point between the celestial equator and the ecliptic to move west along the ecliptic by 36 degrees, or almost exactly one-tenth of the way around.

This means that the signs have slipped one-tenth - or almost one whole month - of the way around the sky to the west, relative to the stars beyond.

Ophiuchus - on WIKI

It is located between Aquila, Serpens and Hercules, northwest of the center of the Milky Way. The southern part lies between Scorpius to the west and Sagittarius to the east.

It is best visible in the northern summer and located opposite Orion in the sky.

Ophiuchus is depicted as a man grasping a serpent; the interposition of his body divides the snake constellation Serpens into two parts, Serpens Caput and Serpens Cauda, which are nonetheless counted as one constellation.

Posted: 6:08:18 PM  
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