The sky, this month
What the sky is doing, computed from NASA ephemeris data, and where the interpretations you hear about it came from.
The same chart twice, an arcsecond apart
We computed one chart from the data this app uses, then computed it again from a rival built by different people from a different fit, and compared all 10 positions. The largest disagreement was 0.95 arcseconds. You could fit 114044 of them inside a single zodiac sign. Whatever two astrologers are arguing about, it is not this.
12 MINUTE READ RETROGRADE · THE PART THAT IS USPluto spends four months in ten going backwards
We counted, day by day, across 150 years. Pluto is retrograde 43.8% of the time, Neptune 43.2%, Uranus 41.0%, and the figure keeps climbing with distance towards one half. That is not something the planets are doing. It is us.
11 MINUTE READ JUPITER AND SATURN · THE GREAT CONJUNCTIONA triangle that creeps three degrees a lap
Jupiter and Saturn meet every 19.87 years, and each meeting falls 243.2° further on. That is nearly two thirds of a circle, so three meetings make a near triangle. Nearly is the whole story: the 3.2° left over is what walks the pattern out of one set of signs and into the next, and it is why anyone was ever able to build a theory of history on two planets.
13 MINUTE READ ECLIPSES · THE SAROSThree clocks that agree once every 18 years
The Moon keeps three separate periods and none of them divides into the others. Every 223 of the first, all three come back together within a few hours, and the same eclipse happens again. We measured all three over a century, then walked a real eclipse series forward to watch it hold.
12 MINUTE READ BIRTH TIME · WHAT AN HOUR COSTSAn hour wrong, and every house moves
Under equal houses, half an hour of error changed nothing at all in this chart. Nor did a whole hour in one direction. An hour in the other moved all 10 planets into different houses. The damage does not scale with the mistake, and the direction matters more than the size.
11 MINUTE READ PRECESSION · THE TWO ZODIACSFour birthdays in five get a different sign
There are two zodiacs in use, they are 24.23 degrees apart, and the gap grows every year. We counted the consequence: on 295 of 365 days in 2026, the two disagree about the Sun sign. The Sun today is one thing in one and something else in the other.
10 MINUTE READ HOUSES · TWO SYSTEMSFour planets in a different house
Two astrologers can read the same chart, agree on every planet's position to the arcsecond, and still disagree about where 4 of the 10 planets are. We computed it. And the system most software uses cannot answer at all for anyone born north of 66.56 degrees.
10 MINUTE READ CYCLES · SATURNThe return that lasts eight months
A Saturn return is spoken about as though it were a birthday. Computed, the one in our worked example is three separate crossings spread across 252.0 days. And the reason is the same retrograde motion everyone complains about for other reasons.
9 MINUTE READ RETROGRADE MOTION · MERCURYOne day in five, counted
Mercury is retrograde far more often than almost anyone assumes. We counted the days: 67 of 365 in 2027. And for fifteen centuries this was not a nuisance but the central problem of astronomy.
9 MINUTE READ RETROGRADE MOTION · October 2026The pentagram of Venus
On 3 October, Venus will begin to look as though it is going backwards. It is not. And the figure it draws every eight years was already being watched three and a half thousand years ago.
8 MINUTE READ