So, the other day, I got this idea in my head. I wanted to mess around with some old astrology data, specifically from the year 1818. Yeah, I know, pretty random, right? But I’ve always been a bit fascinated by how people tracked the stars and planets way back when. I figured, why not try to recreate an ephemeris for that year and see what I could find?
Getting Started
First off, I had to figure out what an ephemeris actually is. Turns out, it’s basically a big table that shows where the planets were in the sky on each day of the year. They used these things for astrology, to figure out people’s charts and all that. I found a few websites that talked about ephemeris tables, and it seemed like something I could maybe, possibly, pull together myself.
I started by gathering the data. This was a bit of a pain, honestly. There weren’t exactly a ton of resources on the internet for astrology data from 1818. I did find some sites that had general info on planetary movements and some tools for calculating them, but nothing specific to the year I wanted.
- I knew I needed the positions of the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.
- I also learned about something called the “True Node,” which is related to the Moon’s orbit, and apparently, it’s important for astrology, so I figured I should include that, too.
The Hard Part
Next, I had to figure out how to actually calculate the positions. This is where things got really tricky. It’s not like I’m an astronomer or anything, you know? I did find some formulas online, but they were pretty complicated, and I definitely didn’t understand all the math behind them.
After a lot of trial and error, and a whole lot of head-scratching, I managed to piece together some calculations. I used a combination of the formulas I found and some online calculators to check my work. It was messy, and I’m pretty sure I made a few mistakes along the way, but I kept at it.
Putting It All Together
Once I had the calculations (mostly) figured out, I started putting the data into a table format. I just used a simple spreadsheet to organize everything. I decided to focus on the geocentric view, which means everything is based on the Earth’s perspective. That’s how they did it back in the day, so I figured I’d stick with that.
I also learned about Saros cycles, which are these 18-year periods that relate to eclipses. That seemed like some pretty cool stuff, so I did a bit of digging on that, too. I didn’t incorporate it directly into my 1818 table, but it was something I wanted to keep in mind for later.
What I Ended Up With
After all that work, I finally had my 1818 ephemeris table! It wasn’t perfect, and I’m sure a real astrologer would probably find a bunch of errors, but I was pretty proud of it. I could look up any date in 1818 and see where all the major celestial bodies were in the sky. Pretty neat, huh?
I even started playing around with some basic astrology concepts, like zodiac signs and aspects between planets. It was fun to try and interpret the data, even though I’m definitely no expert. It gave me a whole new appreciation for what those old-timey astrologers were doing.
Anyway, that’s the story of my little 1818 astrology project. It was a lot more work than I expected, but it was also a lot of fun. Maybe I’ll try another year sometime, or maybe I’ll just stick to reading my horoscope online. Who knows? But at least now I know how to find a planet!
