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Reading the Position: Aries 22 Degrees 2 Minutes

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Reading the Position: Aries 22 Degrees 2 Minutes

The atlas records this star at Aries 22 degrees 2 minutes. That number is the star projected onto the ecliptic, and it is worth being clear about what the projection does, because Andromeda does not touch the ecliptic. It lies well to the north of it, and no star of the chained princess is ever seen among the constellations of the zodiac. A star said to be in Aries is in the part of Aries that its longitude falls into when a line is dropped from it to the ecliptic, and nowhere near the Ram.

The figure is also not permanent. Precession advances a fixed star's tropical longitude by about fifty seconds of arc a year, one degree in roughly seventy two years, so the position belongs to an epoch. Taking the recorded value for epoch 2000 and applying a uniform rate, this star crossed from Pisces into Aries around the fifth century of the common era, and will cross into Taurus in something like another five hundred and seventy years.

It is the only one of the twelve minor stars in this atlas placed in Aries; the rest fall in Taurus, Capricorn and Aquarius.

Anyone comparing this longitude with a figure from an older printed list should expect a difference, and should expect it to be about a degree for every seventy years between the two epochs rather than a copying error.

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