Zodiac signs stay the same?

Sat, 15 Jan 2011 23:23:42 GMT — Millions of Americans read their horoscopes everyday based on what their sign says. We first told you about the zodiac signs changing because the Earth's alignment is now different. We had countless people react to the news that the stars have shifted alignment.

Your zodiac sign was determined by Babylonians based on what constellation the sun was in on the day you were born. But astronomers at the Minnesota Planetarium Society point out things have changed over thousands of years. The Earth has shifted on its axis, and that means the Earth is no longer aligned to the stars in the same way as when the signs of the Zodiac were first created. What's called side-real zodiac, is based on the constellations. So the most commonly used zodiac, tropical, isn't affected by it.

Now the astronomy instructor who started it all, Parke Kunkle, said the information is 2,000 years old, and that Astrologists expect nothing to change. "Astronomers have known about this since about 130 B.C.,"Kunkle told The Associated Press Friday in his office at the Minneapolis Community and Technical College.

Susan Miller from Astrologyzone.com tells ABC news, "We have studied this as an astrological community and we have made a consensus that when we go back to the old formulas and the old algorithms, they work.

While astronomy is a science, astrology is not recognized as having any scientific basis. "This is an attempt to show ignorance on the part of astrologers," said Jim Sher, who runs an astrological institute in Los Angeles. "We do know about this," he said of the planetary wobble. Added Craig Martin, another Los Angeles astrologer: "It's unlikely the astrology community is going to accept what an astronomer is trying to put on them."

A spokeswoman for the American Federation of Astrologers, Shelley Ackerman, said she'd been swamped with e-mails from worried clients. She advises them not to overreact.

"This doesn't change your chart at all. I'm not about to use it," she said. "Every few years a story like this comes out and scares the living daylights out of everyone, but it'll go away as quickly as it came."

----The Associated Press contributed to this article

Noveck, a Leo/Cancer, reported from New York and Williams, a Virgo/Leo, from Minneapolis. Dinesh Ramde in Milwaukee (Virgo/Virgo), Erin Vanderberg (Leo/Leo) and Patrick Walters (Sagittarius/Ophiuchus) in Philadelphia, Tedd Shaffrey in New York (Capricorn/Sagittarius) and Christina Hoag (Cancer/Gemini) in Los Angeles contributed to this story.