User:Mu301/Zodiac

We shall use the names of the signs of the zodiac for the twelve [30°-] divisions of the ecliptic, according to the system in which the divisions begin at the solsticial and equinoctial points. We call the first division, beginning at the spring equinox and going towards the rear with respect to the motion of the unvierse, 'Aries', the second 'Taurus', and so on for the rest, in the traditional order of the 12 signs.

One might add that it seems unnatural to define the sun's revolution by its return to [one of] the fixed stars, especially since the sphere of the fixed stars is observed to have a regular motion of its own towards the rear with respect to the [daily] motion of the heavens. For, this being the case, it would be equally appropriate to say that the length of the solar year is the time it takes the sun to go from one conjunction of Saturn, let us say, (or any other of the planets) to the next.

The latitudinal distances will remain always unchanged, and the positions in longitude can provide a ready means of determining the [corresponding] longitude at other points in time, if we [calculate] the distance in degrees between the epoch and the time in question on the basis of a motion of 1° in 100 years, [and] subtract it from the epoch position for earlier time, but add it to the epoch position for later times.