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Celestial System
The mother earth rotates on its axis
once in 24 hrs and revolves around the Sun
in 365.2422 days. Various planets like
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter & Saturn also
revolve around the Sun (Dig 1.). These
planets have satelites revolving round
them. Earth has one satellite called Moon
revolving around it.
The complete Solar system also revolved
around the centre of our Galaxy "Milky Way"
and makes one round in little hrs than 26000
years. The Galaxy has many solar systems
with different Suns at their centres. Galaxy
is shaped like two saucers placed one over
the other and our solar system is revolving
around it on one side of it.
As earth revolves around the Sun, we see
from earth stars around us in the sky. On
account of motion of Earth around the Sun,
the Sun appears to move round the stars once
in a year. The line along which the Sun
moves is called the Ecliptic.
The broad band or belt in the heaven
extending 90 on either side of the Ecliptic
is known as Zodiac. The Ecliptic passes
through centre of zodiac longitudinally. The
zodiac revolves once in a day on its axis
from east to west. The zodiac is divided
into twelve equal parts, for purpose of
astrology, called signs, which are named
after the imaginary 3 figures which the
stars form in each division. Since zodiac
consists of 3600, each sign will consist of
3600/12=300. The signs are known as Rasis.
Our sages identified twelve group of stars
separated appox.300 each in the 3600
celestial sphere. Thus we have 12 Rashis.
They divided the celestial sphere in 12
parts because moon moves around the earth 12
times during the time earth revolved round
the Sun.
Nakshatra
Looking at the daily movement of Moon, sages
also identified 27 constellations around the
celestial called Ashwini, Barni etc. They
are seperated by 3600/27= 13020'. Every day
Moon crosses over one constellation.Start of
Ashwini match with the start of first sign
Aries. From earth we see a celestial body
passing over a sign, this
helps us know the location of that body. In
astronomy we define planet as a celestial
body which revolved round the Sun and a body
which revolves around a planet is called a
satellite. Sun is termed as a star. In
astrology planet is defined differently.
Since man lives on earth and we want to
studies effect of celestial bodies on human
being, we study the motion of celestial
bodies with respect to earth i.e. we take
earth in centre and measure position of
bodies around it, including. 4 fixed and use
them to know the coordinates/position of the
other celestial bodies. In astrology we
define a planet an any celestial body
revolving round the earth; thus Sun & Moon
are consider as planets for the purpose of
astrology.
What is Rahu/ Ketu
Earth revolves round the sun in a plane
called Ecliptic. Moon revlolves round the
earth in a different plane which intersects
ecliptic in a line. The point from where
Moon seems to be going up is called Rahu &
the point where Moon seems to be
going down is called Ketu. These are only
imaginary point but have special importance
became their position define the eclipse -
Solar or lunar. If Moon earth & Sun are in
line with Rahu or Ketu an eclipse is formed.
Since eclipse plays an
important role an earth and in astrology
too, Rahu/Ketu are important and are given
the status of planets.
How the planets get Retrograde
The planets including earth move in one
direction – anti Clockwise around the sun.
When the planet and the earth are on the
same side of the sun, the planet sems to be
moving in the opposite direction from earth.
This motion is called retrogression of
planet. The names of different planets
according to the Indian and western system
and their symbols are as under:
On account of motion of Earth around the
Sun, the Sun appears to move round the stars
once in a year. The line along which the Sun
moves is called the Ecliptic. The broad band
or belt in the heaven extending 90 on either
side of the Ecliptic is
known as Zodiac. The Ecliptic passes through
centre of zodiac longitudinally. The zodiac
revolves once in a day on its axis from east
to west. The zodiac is divided into twelve
equal parts, for purpose of astrology,
called signs, which are named after the
imaginary figures which the stars form in
each division. Since zodiac consists of
3600, each sign will consist of 3600/12=300.
The signs are known as Rasis.
The twelve signs of Zodiac both in the
Indian and western
system and their symbols are as under: -
| Sl
No |
Indian Name |
Western Name |
| 1 |
Mesha
|
Aries |
| 2 |
Vrishabha |
Taurus |
| 3 |
Mithuna |
Gemini |
| 4 |
Kark
|
Cancer |
| 5 |
Simha
|
Leo |
| 6 |
Kanya
|
Virgo |
| 7 |
Tula
|
Libra |
| 8 |
Vrishchik |
Scorpio |
| 9 |
Dhanu
|
Sagittarius |
| 10 |
Makar
|
Capricorn |
| 11 |
Kumbha |
Aquarius |
| 12 |
Meena
|
Pisces |
CONSTELLATIONS (NAKSHATRAS)
If Zodiac is divided into 27 equal parts
then each part will be of 3600/27= 13020'.
These 27 parts are known as constellations
and each constellation measures 13020' of
arc of zodiac. Each constellation is further
divided into four equal parts known as padas.
Each Pada will measure 3020'. Each Rasi,
therefore, contains 2 ¼ constellation or 9
Padas.
Sign
Aries/ Taurus/ Gemini/Cancer/Leo/
Virgo/Libra/Scorpio/Sagittarius/Capricorn/Aquarius/Pisces
| Sl
No |
Nakshtras |
| 1 |
Ashwini |
| 2 |
Bharnai |
| 3 |
Krittika |
| 4 |
Rohini |
| 5 |
Mrigsira |
| 6 |
Ardra |
| 7 |
Punarvasu |
| 8 |
Pushya |
| 9 |
Aslesha |
| 10 |
Magha |
| 11 |
Purva-Phalguni |
| 12 |
Uttara-Phalguni |
| 13 |
Hasta |
| 14 |
Chitra |
| 15 |
Swati |
| 16 |
Visakha |
| 17 |
Anuradha |
| 18 |
Jyestha |
| 19 |
Moola |
| 20 |
Purvashada |
| 21 |
Uttarashada |
| 22 |
Shravana |
| 23 |
Dhanishtha |
| 24 |
Satabhisha |
| 25 |
Purvabhadra |
| 26 |
Uttarabhadrapada
|
| 27 |
Revati |
|
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