The Zodiac - The Night Sky Atlas

The Zodiac is the portion of sky through which the Sun appears to move throughout a calendar year, made up of the 12 constellations of the Zodiac. As the Earth orbits the Sun, our view of the orbital motion seen from Earth, makes the Sun appear to trace out a path along the sky known as the ecliptic, the line shown in orange. The alignment between any month and it's constellation slowly shifts in a complete circle around the Zodiac every 25,765 years. That's roughly by one zodiac constellation every 2,000 years, or one month on the ecliptic. This is caused by a well-known gyroscopic effect of the Earth's rotation known as precession of the equinoxes.

January sun in Sagittarius, The Archer
February sun in Capricornus, The Sea Goat
March sun in Aquarius, The Water Carrier

Visible in April before dawn, to December after dusk, best in August.

April sun in Pisces, The Fish (plural)
May sun in Aries, The Ram
June sun in Taurus, The Bull

Visible in August before dawn, to April after dusk, best in December.

July sun in Gemini, The Twins
August sun in Cancer, The Crab
September sun in Leo, The Lion

Visible in October before dawn, to June after dusk, best in February.

October sun in Virgo, The Maiden or The Virgin
November sun in Libra, The Balance Scales
December sun in Scorpius, The Scorpion

Visible in January before dawn, to September after dusk, best in May.

The night sky atlas creates images of any part of the night sky, allowing easy location of any object. Detailed chart images show all stars visible to the naked eye, the constellations, Messier objects, and names of the brightest stars. Data sources: Bright Star Catalog from the Astronomical Data Center, star names list from Steven Gibson, all-sky Milky Way image by Axel Mellinger. The data used in this product, in whole or in part, is used with permission of The NGC/IC Project LLC. Many thanks go to those who maintain and make available their astronomy datasets without which this sky atlas would not have been possible. Permission for any use of these chart images is granted, provided that the original website address remains visible on all images. Enjoy!

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