Heavenly Bodies, Ecliptic and Rahu and Ketu

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Influencing the events on earth Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Rahu, and Ketu all loosely termed as planets, appear to rotate around the earth endlessly while always staying within the restrictions of zodiac.

Vedic horoscopes and astrology according to ancient scripts had documented these 9 bodies. Out of which, the Sun is a star. Moon is the satellite of earth. Rahu and Ketu are two mathematical points on the zodiac and the rest are planets. Many modern Vedic astrologers also believe the effect of distant planets like Neptune, Uranus and Pluto.

Ecliptics are the obvious movement or trail of Sun along the zodiac. Ecliptics go by the middle of zodiac and dispose to an angle of 23 degree and 28 minutes to the middle of zodiac

Nodes are moon’s evident pathway around the earth that interconnects the ecliptic diagonally at two points.

The point where the Moon crosses the ecliptic from south to north is called the ascending node or 'Rahu' when it crosses the ecliptic from north to south is called the descending node or 'Ketu'. These 2 points are 6 zodiac signs or 180 degrees apart. The positions of these two points with respect to zodiac signs are of equal importance to position of other planets with respect to zodiac sign in Vedic astrology.