found diagrams

[bognorphotographer]

hello everyone.

Bit of a strange enquiry but I am hoping you can help. I have an interest in astronomy and found some diagrams inside a copy of The Concise Planetary Ephemeris for 1950 to 2000 A.D. at noon (please see link for image). I would be very grateful if you could just tell me a bit about the diagrams as I find them very interesting but know little about them, obviously they relate to symbols in the Planetary book but what are they describing and why?
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w160/bognorphotographer/sg1small.jpg

Kind regards

Sam

[Mac]

well looking at the diagrams,



its very clear that they are something to do with the zodiac and the planets.
The symbols for the zodiacs are as follows. And probably more to do with Astrology .
(only because there are 12 and not 13, Every astronomer knows there are 13 signs of the Zodiac )



which you can see round the outside of the lines.

and the symbols for the sun, mars, venus and the moon


are also visible within the lines

Its a chart showing the positions of the planets relative to the background zodiac of stars.
and looking at the date 8th June 91 and checking against an ephemeris calculator, assuming that that date is for that chart

From the chart It shows that Venus should be between, capricorn and aquirius,
(which in terms of astrology is Junk as they change the dates to make them an even number of sizes they also ignore the 13th sign of the Zodiac Ophiuchus)

Observer position:
 Lat  =  51° 30' 00" N
 Long =  00° 00' 00" W
Min. mag = 8.0

Ephemeris for UT: 1991-07-08 0:00.0 (MJD=33425.50)

- OBJECT ---- RA ----------- DEC -------- mag - phas - elo -- rise --- set --- transit ---
Mercury   8h 36m 29.9s   20° 10' 16.0"   -0.3   71.4    21     5:36   21:34  13:36 58.4°
Venus    10h 00m 21.1s   12° 11' 37.3"   -4.4   33.9    43     7:47   22:07  14:58 50.5°
Mars      9h 52m 15.9s   14° 09' 16.8"    1.8   96.0    40     7:28   22:11  14:49 52.5°
Jupiter   9h 13m 49.8s   16° 48' 52.1"   -1.6   99.8    30     6:33   21:47  14:10 55.3°
Saturn   20h 29m 21.7s  -19° 28' 51.4"    0.2  100.0  -160    21:00    5:50   1:27 19.1°
Uranus   18h 50m 56.0s  -23° 18' 25.8"    5.6  100.0   176    19:47    3:48  23:45 15.2°
Neptune  19h 06m 21.7s  -21° 44' 48.5"    7.9  100.0  -179    19:52    4:13   0:05 16.8°
Sun       7h 06m 40.9s   22° 33' 23.9"  -26.8  100.0     0     3:49   20:21  12:05 61.0°
Moon      3h 14m 47.7s   22° 37' 41.0"  -10.9   20.1   -53     0:13   17:08   8:34 61.2°

checking venus (above for that date) against a star chart, shows it should be in Leo and not between, capricorn and aquirius,

as there are other dates on the drawing
aug 93
feb 93
oct 92

it would be easy to workout what the date is for that chart.

If you look at the moon it shows the line 27 - 9, i would deduce that the moon will be moving across the background between, capricorn and aquirius,
at this point in time, which month is another guess

Its just an aid memoir so that you can see where the position of the planets are relative to the zodiac.

Hope this helps

Mac.

ps just noticed the pencil date at the top . 8-2-47 (8th Feb)

Observer position:
 Lat  =  51° 30' 00" N
 Long =  00° 00' 00" W
Min. mag = 8.0

Ephemeris for UT: 1947-02-08 0:00.0 (MJD=17204.50)

- OBJECT ---- RA ----------- DEC -------- mag - phas - elo -- rise --- set --- transit ---
Mercury  22h 09m 52.0s  -12° 46' 13.9"   -1.0   91.2    12     7:58   18:08  13:02 26.2°
Venus    18h 08m 01.6s  -20° 25' 42.8"   -4.2   55.4   -47     4:41   13:17   8:59 18.1°
Mars     20h 53m 17.8s  -18° 36' 44.3"    1.2   99.8    -8     7:15   16:14  11:44 20.0°
Jupiter  15h 34m 48.6s  -18° 10' 44.6"   -1.9   99.2   -83     1:54   10:56   6:25 20.4°
Saturn    8h 27m 35.7s   19° 45' 33.3"   -0.2  100.0   166    15:19    7:14  23:14 58.3°
Uranus    5h 07m 14.0s   22° 59' 08.3"    5.6   99.9   119    11:37    4:17  19:55 61.5°
Neptune  12h 41m 25.7s   -2° 47' 25.2"    7.9  100.0  -128    21:35    9:25   3:32 35.7°
Sun      21h 23m 16.7s  -15° 19' 23.0"  -26.8  100.0     0     7:26   17:04  12:14 23.4°
Moon     11h 30m 27.8s    8° 35' 00.6"  -12.6   92.5  -148    

which would put venus in sagitarius, which because the dates of the zodiac have been evenly spaced out would be roughly correct.

[Tony G]

 

Tony G

PS...........................What the &*^£ was that all about????????????????????????????

[Rick]

Looks a bit like someone was working out where the planets really were on the dates in question. Maybe they were playing at astrology, or maybe they were out to show an astrologer that the astrology chart for the date was actually incorrect. Who knows...

[Mac]

...........................What the &*^£ was that all about????????????????????????????

Love the technical reply Tony.

it was in the days before software...............................(as we know it!)

All you had was a Pencil, Paper, Rubber and slide rule.

now days its
Double Click, Press F1 and then Print.

Mac.

[bognorphotographer]

Amazingly detailed reply thanks a lot!!!!!! 

[MarkS]

Looking up "The Concise Planetary Ephemeris" on Amazon, one quickly finds this is an astrological book.

Mark

[Fay]

Gosh, that was a great answer, Mac, clever boy!!!!!!!!

[Mike]

Got a lot of time on your hands lately Mac ? 

[Fay]

I think Mac is lucky, he does not have to think too hard to produce an answer like that   

[Tony G]

I think Mac is lucky, he does not have to think too hard to produce an answer like that   

Was that an answer? I thought he was giving us the contents of the book.

Tony G

[The Thing]

[flame on]Blooming astrologers. They should be aligned with Uranus and let rip upon to give them back some of what they have given the world! It takes an astronomer to decipher the tripe they concoct and show they can't align diddly squat with nowt.[flame off]
Good answer Prof. Mac.

PS. I'm a Scorpio or a water tiger if you're Chinese etc. etc.

[RobertM]

Had a bad day by any chance Duncan

[The Thing]

TGIF sums it up. New job, lots to put right. Cestlavie as they say.

[Mac]

Was that an answer? I thought he was giving us the contents of the book. 

Got a lot of time on your hands lately Mac ? 

A Tad.