If you could observe the motion of the Sun against the stars for
an entire year, it would appear to trace out a large circle in
the sky that we call the "ecliptic". This circle also happens to
be the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun. The zodiac is
a thin band of the sky on either side of the ecliptic. The word
"zodiac" literally means "circle of life", since most of the
zodiac signs are animals or people. What are Zodiac Signs? The
zodiac is divided into 12 signs, each 30 degrees long. The cycle
of zodiac signs starts with Aries, which begins at the spot on
the ecliptic where the Sun is on the first day of spring. These
30 degree sections of the sky are actually blocks of space, not
time. Zodiac signs are often confused in the popular mind with
"sun signs". When a person says, "I'm an Aries!", what they're
really saying is they were born at a time of the year when the
Sun is in the zodiac sign of Aries. Because our calendar is
designed to mimic the motions of the Sun around the zodiac, the
Sun is in