The first thing Melissa Gallup and her roommates do each morning is flip through the pages a newspaper to find out what the stars have in store for each of them that day.

Gallup, a freshman from Austin, Texas, and a Gemini, is one of millions of people around the world who read their horoscopes. Some check them to get a heads up on future events. Others read horoscopes out of curiosity or simple amusement.

A study done on students by two British doctors showed that 100 percent of students know their star sign, 70 percent read their horoscopes regularly and 85 percent agree that the description of their birth sign describes their personality.

“I know it’s kind of lame, but sometimes it’s fun to read it in the morning and then read it that night and see what was right,” said Gallup. “Like, when my horoscope says I’m going to have a three-star day, I always seem to have a three-star day.”

Astrology, as it is known in western culture, dates back to the early Babylonians and Egyptians around 2500 B.C. However most other ancient cultures also had some form of astrology.

“The general feeling was that the planets, since they moved among the stars, were associated with the gods,” said Ellis Miller, a member of the BYU-Idaho Physics faculty. “So if you could somehow recognize what the gods were doing, then you could forecast what was going to happen on earth.”

Many authorities believe that study of astrology helped to progress the science of astronomy.

“Earlier rulers had court astrologers that would look to the sky and the position of the planets and try to give some type of forecast of the future,” Miller said.

This focus on the many complexities of the skies created the mix of religion and science whereby astrology is still known today.

The Greeks took their forms of astrology from the Mesopotamians and the Romans in turn created their astrology based on the Greeks.

Much of modern astrology is still based on that of the Romans,

Today astrology is viewed with a much more critical eye. Nevertheless, it has not lost a great deal of popularity. In fact, since the advent of daily horoscopes to newspapers, astrology’s popularity has increased.

Even at BYU-I there’s a chance that most students know their astrological sign.

For those interested in how different societies have used the stars and planets as part of their culture, BYU-I offers a class called Archaeoastronomy, GS.PS 130.

The class will only be offered for one more semester, Winter 2006, after which the teacher, Ellis Miller will be retiring. The class studies the Anasazi and the Mayas, as well as Egyptian and Babylonian cultures.