Astronomy Vs Astrology Essay

Astronomy and Astrology: A Battle of Two Ancestral Brothers Astronomy, being an actual natural science, and not just predictions and magic, is a much more useful practice than its ancestral brother, astrology. Though, long ago, astronomy and astrology were once thought to be the one and the same, in the modern era, these two "sciences" are different in both the way they are practiced, and the tools with which you practice them. Astronomy, considered to be the more "real", respected science out of the two, has been around for a long time; in fact, astronomy is the oldest natural science. Astronomy shares its humble origins with astrology in the form of religious, mythological, astrological, cosmological, and calendrical beliefs and practices beginning thousands of years ago. Now, however, astronomy takes on a much different tone; it involves the study of the universe and the contents out of Earth's atmosphere, and study of motions, positions and properties of celestial objects. Astrology on the other hand, studies how these motions, objects, and properties affect the beings on Earth, often …show more content…
For one, they both observe and study the known universe and its relations; the only difference is in what way they use the information. Astronomy may use the observations for data on how far away two objects are, while astrology will look at the distance between the objects, and try to find its meaning. Another example is in the way they both rely on the calendar. Astronomers believe there are thirteen constellations across the ecliptic, while astrologers believe in twelve zodiac signs based on the Gregorian calendar (History of Astronomy, NASA). Without the calendar, astronomers wouldn’t have been able to determine the movement of the thirteen constellations across the ecliptic, and astrologers wouldn’t be able to take readings based on the zodiac