Herong's Notes on Astrology and Horoscope
Dr. Herong Yang, Version 2.01

What Is Astronomy

This section describes what is astronomy.

Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects (such as stars, planets, comets, and galaxies) and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere (such as auroras and cosmic background radiation). It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the formation and development of the universe. The word astronomy literally means "law of the stars" in Greek.

Astronomy is a different than astrology. But it is related to astrology the following areas:

  • Astronomy and astrology both make predictions. Astronomy makes predictions about celestial phenomena. While astrology makes predictions about personality and human affairs based on positions and movements of celestial objects.
  • Back in the history, astronomy and astrology were overlapped together as one discipline. An astronomer was also an astrologer at that time.
  • Astrology and astronomy share the same knowledge about relative positions and movements of celestial objects.

In the next several sections, we will look at some of the basic knowledge of astrology and astronomy.

Sections in This Chapter

What Is Astronomy

The Solar System

The Celestial Sphere

The Celestial Sphere Coordinate System

The Celestial Meridian and Zenith

The Ecliptic

The Precession - Rotation of Earth's Axis

Dr. Herong Yang, updated in 2007
What Is Astronomy