Astronomy and astrology
It is necessary to have a working idea of how the astrologers scientifically convert the astronomical planetary positions in to astrological charts. The astrological charts are not some kind of mystic mumbo jumbo. They are the actual planetary positions in the space at the time of your birth. It is briefly explained below. All pictures are actual planetary positions as on 1-1-1999, 8:00 AM at New Delhi.
The picture bellow is a diagrammatic representation of the Earth and the other planets in the space with the zodiac constellations marked, again as on 1-1-1999, 8:00 AM at New Delhi.. From the Earth if we draw an imaginary yellow lines to all the other planets and extend those lines to the zodiac sign behind them, we will end up with the picture below which gives the zodiac positions of the planets as we see them in space. The pictures of the planets used here are satellite pictures.
Follow the yellow lines drawn from the Earth through each planet and to the signs behind each planet and you know in which constellations the various planets are placed. So, when we talk about the planets placed in the various zodiac signs, we mean as we see from the Earth – Saturn at the top is in the sign Aries, Moon is in Gemini, Jupiter in Aquarius, Mercury in Scorpio, Sun in Sagittarius, Venus in Capricorn and Mars in Virgo. Also note that it is the 14th lunar phase in the bright half, very close to full moon, so the sun and the moon are in opposite directions vis-à-vis the earth.
The picture bellow is how the chart of the planets in heaven would be drawn according to Vedic astrology. The only difference is that instead of putting the pictures of the planets, we write their names. The positions of Rahu and ketu are hypothetically calculated.The Ascendant or Lagna at Delhi is Sagittarius. You can learn about how Lagna or Ascendant is calculated from >here
The ephemeris, or the Panchang, give the exact degrees, minutes and seconds of the planets and this information is normally give in your birth chart. You can learn more about horoscope casting and the various types of charts in our lesson 3.
