Precession of the Equinox is the age old phenomenon whereby an observer
on Earth will notice that after one year (solar, tropical, or equinoctial),
he will not realign with the exact same point in inertial space. In
ancient times observers on Earth noticed that the vernal equinox aligned
with the constellation Aries, then after a few thousand years with
Pisces. Now as many know, we are at the "dawning of the age of
Aquarius." This backward procession is the precession of the
equinox – whereby the equinoctial point slowly recedes through
the 12 constellations of the Zodiac, completing a full cycle in about
24,000 years.
Current LuniSolar Model
The current explanation for why we see
this precession of the equinox is that the tug of the Sun and
the Moon acting upon the Earth’s bulge (<1% wider at
equator) causes the Earth to gyrate so that the pole axis slowly
traces a circle in the sky over about 24,000 years – give
or take a few thousand years. The Lunisolor Precession theory
was developed before any knowledge of binary prevalence or star
phases. While this theory is one method of explaining the observed
phenomena, it is still unproven and produces a number of enigmas.
