Think you're a Leo? You're not: Star shift puts zodiac out of whack

The constellations have drifted out by a whole month, it was revealed on the BBC's Stargazing Live. Photo / Thinkstock

Almost nobody was born under the sign they think they are, as the astrological calendar has failed to be updated as our position in relation to the stars has changed.

The constellations have drifted out by a whole month, it was revealed on the BBC's Stargazing Live. Since the zodiac was created more than 2000 years ago, the wobbling effect of the Earth caused by the moon and the sun has meant that the stars that are above us have shifted.

If, for example, someone was born towards the end of January, they might think they were born under Aquarius. But in fact they'd have been born under Capricorn, Dr Radmilla Topalovic, an astronomer from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich pointed out on the programme.

When the zodiac was devised by the ancient Greeks, people were assigned star signs based on the constellation that was behind the sun at that time. But the constellations are now out by about a month.

The wobbling process is called precession - it has been likened to the Earth behaving like a spinning top - and takes about 26,000 years to happen.

That means that 86 per cent of people are now living under the wrong sign, according to the BBC. Stargazing Live created an interactive graphic that allows people to work out what their star sign really is.

The programme also points out that there is a 13th star sign, describing a lesser-known one called Ophiuchus. It is thought that ancient astrologers perhaps left out the sign so that the 360-degree path of the sun could be divided into 12 neat parts, each of 30 degrees.

But the constellation, known as the serpent bearer, actually passes behind the sun between November 30 and December 18 - so while some people might have their star sign wrong, some people might be an entirely new one altogether.

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- Independent