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Astronomy aims to understand the physical workings of the universe, something of no particular interest to astrologers. Astrology, by contrast, attempts to draw connections between the physical motions of heavenly bodies and various events on earth, notably in the personal lives of individuals.
Astrology was once deeply intertwined with astronomy, many prominent figures in the early history of western astronomy, including Johannes Kepler and Galileo himself, also supported themselves by practising astrology for wealthy noblemen. A firm distinction between the two dates back only to the time of Galileo. He was one of the first to use the scientific method to test objective statements about the heavens by, for instance, using telescopic observations to show that astronomical bodies such as the sun and moon had markings on them, rather than being perfect, featureless spheres as maintained by Aristotle.
But today astrology is not the same as astronomy. Astronomers are often dismayed at being confused with their counterparts in astrology. Because they regard it as not adhering to standards of the scientific method mainstream Western scientists commonly consider astrology as a pseudoscience. Most astrologers, however, respect the knowledge gained from astronomy, and often incorporate it in their ideas.
Newspapers often print astrology columns, which purport to provide guidance on what challenges might be found in a day, as determined by where planets and stars are on that day, in relation to the sign of the zodiac that included the sun when the person was born. Professional astrologers refer to this as the "sun sign", but it is often incorrectly called the "star sign" in newspapers. Typically these predictions, an innovation of 20th century newspapers, are vague or general, so that even practising astrologers consider them useless. People presented with randomly-chosen newspaper column report the same degree of accuracy as those given specifically prepared ones. Professional astrologers claim that a more complete, personalized chart is more effective, but critics claim that this is not the case
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