Prince William: Natal Sky

Definition: [Prince William Horoscope] The night sky over St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London when Prince William was born to Princess Diana at 21:03 BST, 21 June 1982.

Prince William's Natal Solar System: Prince William's natal solar system is illustrated right. The positions of the planets in their paths around the Sun are accurately shown. The planets themselves are shown much larger than their real appearance would be, as in reality they would all be too small to see at this scale. The Moon is not depicted, as at this scale it is essentially in the same place as the Earth. Moving out from the Sun, the order of the planets is Mercury, Venus, Earth-Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Pluto and finally Neptune. Pluto is often the outermost planet of the solar system, but its path is not symmetrical around the Sun. You can see in the picture how Pluto's path lies partly within that of Neptune. During such periods [which last for several years] Neptune is the outermost planet. This was the case in June 1982 at William's birth. When we look at one of these planets in the night sky, its place against the background constellations - the Planetary Zodiac - depends on two things: where the Earth is in its path around the Sun and where the planet is on its path around the Sun. In other words, the planet moves, but so does the place we are observing the planet from - the Earth - which also makes the planet appear to move against the background constellations. To see how this works for the Inner Solar System Planets [Sun to Venus] and the Outer Solar System Planets [Mars to Neptune], the two components of Prince William's full birth chart, please follow the links.

The solar system at the exact moment of the birth of Prince William, viewed from the North Celestial Pole. [The orbits have been scaled slightly to separate out the planets. At the real scale the inner planets would be difficult to separate out. The positions of the planets in their orbits are accurate.]

Prince William's Natal Sky - Horizon Charts: Shown below are views of William's natal sky, i.e. how the constellations appeared as viewed from London and where the planets appeared against those background constellations at the moment of William's birth. Examples of the sky to the north, south, east and west are shown. For the view of the sky to the south east, follow the link to William's Ascendant.

William's natal sky: the northern sky as viewed from London on 21 June 1982 at 21:03 BST. The constellation Andromeda, the Princess, lies on the horizon.

William's natal sky: the spin of the Earth causes the constellation of Aquila, the Eagle, to appear to rise on the eastern horizon. No Real Solar Zodiac constellation is visible to the east in this sky. Instead, as the Earth is at Summer Solstice at William's birth, the Ecliptic lies to the south east.

William's natal sky: the spin of the Earth causes the constellations of Hydra, the Water Snake, and Canis Major, the Greater Dog, to appear to set on the western horizon. No Real Solar Zodiac constellation is visible to the west in this sky. Instead, as the Earth is at Summer Solstice at William's birth, the Ecliptic appears to set to the north west.

William's natal sky: the southern sky as viewed from London on 21 June 1982 at 21:03 BST. The planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars can be seen against the constellation of Virgo, the Maiden.

Prince William's Natal Sky - The Complete Visible Sky: The chart shown below would be your complete view of the sky if you looked overhead from St Mary's' Hospital Paddington at the time of William's birth. The line from north west to south east is the Ecliptic. The line from west to east is the Celestial Equator.

William's natal sky: the visible sky - i.e. that part of the sky above the horizon - as viewed from London on 21 June 1982 at 21:03 BST.

The spin of the Earth is just about to make the Sun appear to set to the north west - its normal 'setting' position at the Summer Solstice. The Moon, which is positioned relative to the Sun and Earth such that it is 'new' [i.e. dark as seen from Earth] can be seen against the constellation of Gemini, the Twins. Further to the East, Mars, Saturn, Pluto and Jupiter can be seen against the constellation of Virgo the Maiden. Pluto lies quite a distance from the Ecliptic, almost seen against the constellation of Bootes, the Bear Driver. This is because the path of Pluto is quite tilted in comparison to the Ecliptic. See Planetary Zodiac for more information.] Further East, Uranus can be seen against the constellation Libra, the Scales, almost on the cusp with Scorpius, the Scorpion, and Neptune can be seen against the constellation Ophiuchus, the Serpent Bearer.

From London at this time, the Earth's spin has moved you away from a position in which Venus and Mercury are visible, i.e. they are said to have 'set.'

Occultations: As well as being seen against certain constellations, some planets will be seen to appear close to particular stars in those constellations, or occasionally to occult those stars. Occultation means that viewed from Earth the planet lies directly between the Earth and the star rendering the star invisible. At Prince William's birth the following occultations occurred:

Sun       None.
Mercury   Within 2 degrees of Aldeberan, "The Follower", Alpha Tauri in Taurus.
Venus     Within 10 degrees of the Pleiades Star Cluster**
Moon      Occults Mu Geminorum, in Gemini.
Mars      Within 5 degrees of Gamma Virginis, a binary star system in Virgo.
Jupiter   Within 5 degrees of Spica, "The Ear of Wheat", Alpha Virginis, in Virgo.
Saturn    Within 5 degrees of Gamma Virginis, a binary star system in Virgo.
Uranus    Within 2 degrees of Graffias, "The Claws", Beta Scorpii, and Delta Scorpii*.
Neptune   None
Pluto     None.

*  in the neighboring constellation of Scorpius.
** In contrast to statements in several of William's web horoscopes, Venus is nowhere near Algol, 
   "The Medusa's Head", Beta Perseus.  Perseus is not even a Solar Zodiac constellation! 

Further Information: Shown below is the positional information of the planets at the moment of William's birth.

              Right                   Distance    From 51°31'N 0°10'W:
            Ascension    Declination      (AU)   Altitude Azimuth
Sun           6h 0m 26s   +23° 26.4'     1.016     0.710  128.588 Up
Mercury      4h 31m 36s   +17° 53.8'     0.743   -13.725  144.644 Set
Venus        3h 35m 10s   +17° 23.2'     1.281   -18.441  157.763 Set
Moon         6h 21m 42s   +22° 34.8'   57.0 ER     2.654  124.015 Up
Mars        12h 33m 49s    -3° 39.2'     1.022    31.383   27.467 Up
Jupiter     13h 55m 19s   -10° 27.0'     4.843    27.983    3.189 Up
Saturn        13h 1m 5s    -3° 44.1'     9.369    33.001   19.654 Up
Uranus      15h 57m 38s   -20° 18.6'    17.986    14.178  -26.737 Up
Neptune     17h 40m 46s    -22° 3.0'    29.259     2.821  -48.241 Up
Pluto       13h 55m 39s    +6° 39.0'    29.547    45.075    3.909 Up

ER is 'Earth radii' i.e. the Moon lies 57 times the radius of the Earth away from the Earth. The other distances are in AU, astronomical units. 1 AU is the average distance from the Earth to the Sun, i.e. Neptune and Pluto are both more than twenty-nine times further from the Sun than the Earth is. Azimuth in the above table follows the astronomical convention: zero degrees is South with positive angles toward the West and negative angles toward the East. For the meanings of Right Ascension, Declination, Altitude and Azimuth follow those links.

Prince William's Zodiac Charts:

Prince William's Web Horoscopes:

© Dr Shepherd Simpson, Galactic Astrologer

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