Nebula 2

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Nebula 2 / Nebula Two.iso / Apps / Astro / astrolog / Source / Helpfile.p1 < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1995-06-12 | 53.1 KB | 972 lines

-- Helpfile for Astrolog version 4.10 (March 1994): This file contains a complete list of all the features available in Astrolog version 4.10, and documentation on how to use each option. The file is divided into six parts: 1) A summary list of all the main features which are accessed via command line parameter switches, along with a list of single keypress commands that can be given in an X window or to the screen (assuming graphics are compiled in) to change the display in various ways. 2) The list of command switches and keypresses is repeated, but after each option is listed a more lengthy description of the details of the feature. 3) Details of default parameters, in compile time options, and in the default parameter file, are described. 4) Descriptions of things that appear in the Astrolog text displays are described. This consists of describing how to enter chart information into the program, and how to interpret what is seen in the main default display. 5) Next to last is a description of the different graphic chart displays and how they are organized, and the X windows features in general. (Looking for a quick impressive display to prove Astrolog was worth compiling? With graphics try: "astrolog -Xn -XG". :) 6) Next to last are discussed the program's graphics features for PC's, how to use them, the ways they are different from X Windows, and the best way to use them if running under Microsoft Windows. ************************ LIST OF COMMAND SWITCHES ************************ Astrolog (version 4.10) command switches: -H: Display this help list. -Hc: Display program credits and copyrights. -H0: Display names of zodiac signs and houses. -O: Display available planets and other celestial objects. -O0: Like -O but ignore object restrictions. -A: Display available aspects, their angles, and present orbs. -I0: Display meanings of signs, houses, planets, and aspects. -Q: Prompt for more command switches after display finished. -Q0: Like -Q but prompt for additional switches on startup. Switches which determine the type of chart to display: -v: Display list of object positions (chosen by default). -v0: Like -v but express velocities relative to average speed. -w [<rows>]: Display chart in a graphic house wheel format. -w0 [..]: Like -w but reverse order of objects in houses 4..9. -g: Display aspect and midpoint grid among planets. -g0: Like -g but flag aspect configurations (e.g. Yod's) too. -g0: For comparison charts, show midpoints instead of aspects. -ga: Like -g but indicate applying instead of difference orbs. -m: Display all object midpoints in sorted zodiac order. -m0: Like -m but list aspects ordered by influence instead. -m[0]a: Like -m0 but indicate applying and separating orbs. -Z: Display planet locations with respect to the local horizon. -Z0: Like -Z but express coordinates relative to polar center. -Zd: Search day for object local rising and setting times. -S: Display x,y,z coordinate positions of planets in space. -j: Display astrological influences of each object in chart. -j0: Like -j but include influences of each zodiac sign as well. -L [<step>]: Display astro-graph locations of planetary angles. -L0 [..]: Like -L but display list of latitude crossings too. -K: Display a calendar for given month. -Ky: Like -K but display a calendar for the entire year. -d [<step>]: Print all aspects and changes occurring in a day. -dm: Like -d but print all aspects for the entire month. -dy: Like -d but print all aspects for the entire year. -dp <month> <year>: Print aspects within progressed chart. -dpy <year>: Like -dp but search for aspects within entire year. -dp[y]n: Search for progressed aspects in current month/year. -D: Like -d but display aspects by influence instead of time. -E: Display planetary ephemeris for given month. -Ey: Display planetary ephemeris for the entire year. -e: Print all charts together (i.e. -v-w-g0-m-Z-S-j0-L0-K-d-D-E). -t <month> <year>: Compute all transits to natal planets in month. -tp <month> <year>: Compute progressions in month for chart. -t[p]y: <year>: Compute transits/progressions for entire year. -t[p]Y: <year> <years>: Compute transits for a number of years. -t[py]n: Compute transits to natal planets for current time now. -T <month> <day> <year>: Display transits ordered by influence. -Tp <month> <day> <year>: Print progressions instead of transits. -T[p]n: Display transits ordered by influence for current date. -I [<columns>]: Print interpretation of selected charts. Switches which affect how the chart parameters are obtained: -n: Compute chart for this exact moment using current time. -n[d,m,y]: Compute chart for start of current day, month, year. -z: Assume Daylight time (change default zone appropriately). -z <zone>: Change the default time zone (for -d-E-t-q options). -l <long> <lat>: Change the default longitude & latitude. -q <month> <date> <year> <time>: Compute chart with defaults. -qd <month> <date> <year>: Compute chart for noon on date. -qm <month> <year>: Compute chart for first of month. -qy <year>: Compute chart for first day of year. -qa <month> <date> <year> <time> <zone> <long> <lat>: Compute chart automatically given specified data. -qj <day>: Compute chart for time of specified Julian day. -i <file>: Compute chart based on info in file. -o <file> [..]: Write parameters of current chart to file. -o0 <file> [..]: Like -o but output planet/house positions. -os <file>: Redirect output of text charts to file. Switches which affect what information is used in a chart: -R [<obj1> [<obj2> ..]]: Restrict specific bodies from displays. -R0 [<obj1> ..]: Like -R but restrict everything first. -R1 [<obj1> ..]: Like -R0 but unrestrict and show all objects. -R[C,u,U]: Restrict all minor cusps, all uranians, or stars. -RT[0,1,C,u,U] [..]: Restrict transiting planets in -t lists. -C: Include non-angular house cusps in charts. -u: Include transneptunian/uranian bodies in charts. -U: Include locations of fixed background stars in charts. -U[z,l,n,b]: Order by azimuth, altitude, name, or brightness. -A <0-18>: Specify the number of aspects to use in charts. -Ao <aspect> <orb>: Specify maximum orb for an aspect. -Am <planet> <orb>: Specify maximum orb allowed to a planet. -Ad <planet> <orb>: Specify orb addition given to a planet. -Aa <aspect> <angle>: Change the actual angle of an aspect. Switches which affect how a chart is computed: -b: Use ephemeris files for more accurate location computations. -b0: Like -b but display locations to the nearest second too. -c <value>: Select a different default system of houses. (0 = Placidus, 1 = Koch, 2 = Equal, 3 = Campanus, 4 = Meridian, 5 = Regiomontanus, 6 = Porphyry, 7 = Morinus, 8 = Topocentric, 9 = Equal (MC), 10 = Neo-Porphyry, 11 = None.) -s [..]: Compute a sidereal instead of the normal tropical chart. -s0: Display locations as right ascension instead of degrees. -h [<objnum>]: Compute positions centered on specified object. -p <month> <day> <year>: Cast 2ndary progressed chart for date. -p0 <month> <day> <year>: Cast solar arc chart for date. -p[0]n: Cast progressed chart based on current date now. -pd <days>: Set no. of days to progress / day (default 365.25). -x <1-360>: Cast harmonic chart based on specified factor. -1 [<objnum>]: Cast chart with specified object on Ascendant. -2 [<objnum>]: Cast chart with specified object on Midheaven. -3: Display objects in their zodiac decan positions. -f: Display houses as sign positions (flip them). -G: Compute houses based on geographic location only. -F <objnum> <sign> <deg>: Force object's position to be value. -+ [<days>]: Cast chart for specified no. of days in the future. -- [<days>]: Cast chart for specified no. of days in the past. -+[m,y] [<value>]: Cast chart for no. of months/years in future. Switches for relationship and comparison charts: -r <file1> <file2>: Compute a relationship synastry chart. -rc <file1> <file2>: Compute a composite chart. -rm <file1> <file2>: Compute a time space midpoint chart. -r[c,m]0 <file1> <file2> <ratio1> <ratio2>: Weighted chart. -rd <file1> <file2>: Print time span between files' dates. -rb <file1> <file2>: Display biorhythm for file1 at time file2. -r0 <file1> <file2>: Keep the charts separate in comparison. -rp <file1> <file2>: Like -r0 but do file1 with progr. to file2. -y <file>: Display current house transits for particular chart. -y[b,d,p] <file>: Print biorhythm/datediff for current time now. Switches to access graphics options: -k: Display text charts using Ansi characters and color. -V: <25,43,50>: Start up with text mode set to number of rows. -X: Create a graphics chart instead of displaying it as text. -Xb: Create bitmap file instead of putting graphics on screen. -Xb[n,c,v,a,b]: Set bitmap file output mode to X11 normal, compacted, very compact, Ascii (bmtoa), or Windows bmp. -Xp: Create PostScript stroke graphic instead of bitmap file. -Xp0: Like -Xp but create complete instead of encapsulated file. -XM[0]: Create Windows metafile stroke graphic instead of bitmap. -Xo <file>: Write output bitmap or graphic to specified file. -XB: Display X chart on root instead of in a separate window. -Xm: Create monochrome graphic instead of one in color. -Xr: Create chart graphic in reversed colors (white background). -Xw <hor> [<ver>], -ge[..]: Change the size of chart graphic. -Xs <100,200,300,400>: Change the size of map or characters by %. -Xi: Create chart graphic in slightly modified form. -XT: Inhibit display of chart info at bottom of graphic. -Xl: Inhibit labeling of object points in chart graphic. -X1 <object>: Rotate wheel charts so object is at left edge. -X2 <object>: Rotate wheel charts so object is at top edge. -Xd <name>, -di[..] <name>: Open X window on specified display. -XW: Simply create an image of the world map. -XW0: Like -XW but do a non-rectangular Mollewide projection. -XP: Create just the world map, but from a polar projection. -XG [<degrees>]: Display the image of the world as a globe. -Xn [<mode>]: Start up chart or globe display in animation mode. Also, press 'H' while running for list of key press options. Astrolog window keypress options (version 4.10): Press 'H' or '?' to display this list of key options. Press 'p' to toggle pause status on or off. Press 'x' to toggle fg/bg colors on screen. Press 'm' to toggle color/monochrome display on screen. Press 'i' to toggle status of the minor chart modification. Press 'T' to toggle header info on current chart on screen. Press 'b' to toggle drawing of a border around the chart. Press 'l' to toggle labeling of object points in chart. Press 'v' to display current chart positions on text screen. Press 'R', 'C', 'u', 'U' to toggle restriction status of minor objects, minor house cusps, uranian planets, and stars. Press 'c' to toggle relationship comparison chart mode. Press 's', 'h', 'f', 'F' to toggle status of sidereal zodiac, heliocentric charts, domal charts, and decan charts. Press 'O' and 'o' to recall/store a previous chart from memory. Press 'B' to dump current window contents to root background. Press 'B' to resize chart display to full size of screen. Press 'Q' to resize chart display to a square. Press '<' and '>' to decrease/increase the scale size of the glyphs and the size of world map. Press '[' and ']' to decrease/increase tilt in globe display. Press '+' and '-' to add/subtract a day from current chart. Press 'n' to set chart information to current time now. Press 'N' to toggle animation status on or off. Charts will be updated to current status and globe will rotate. Press '!'-'(' to begin updating current chart by adding times. !: seconds, @: minutes, #: hours, $: days, %: months, ^: years, &: years*10, *: years*100, (: years*1000. Press 'r' to reverse direction of time-lapse or animation. Press '1'-'9' to set rate of animation to 'n' degrees, etc. Press '1'-'9' to determine section of chart to show if clipped. Press 'V','L','A','Z','S','E','W','G','P' to switch to normal (-v), astro-graph (-L), grid (-g), local (-Z), space (-S), ephemeris (-E), world map (-XW), globe (-XG), and polar (-XP) modes. Press '0' to toggle between -Z,-Z0 & -XW,-XW0 & -E,-Ey modes. Press 'space' to force redraw of current graphics display. Press 'tab' to toggle between graphics resolutions. Press 'q' to terminate the window and program. Left mouse button: Draw line strokes on chart in window. Middle mouse button: Print coordinates of pointer on world map. Right mouse button: Terminate the window and program. ********************************** DESCRIPTION OF EACH COMMAND SWITCH ********************************** Note: Astrolog allows command line parameter switches to be invoked with either the leading dash ("-") standard to Unix users, or a leading slash ("/") that many PC users are accustomed to. Not only that, but the leading character is actually optional, and isn't necessary at all! For example, the command "astrolog -i chartfile -R -u -U -Z -Xs 300 -Xi -XB" can be done as "astrolog /i chartfile /r /u /U /Z /Xs 300", or can be abbreviated as "astrolog i chartfile R u U Z Xs 300 Xi XB". (This is subject to a couple of minor limitations, in that one can't have the -1 or -3 option follow a -R restriction list of numbers, since the "-1" will be considered a number.) Note: Many switches are technically a "toggle" instead of a "set" for the particular feature in question. For example, "astrolog -v -g -g" will only result in the -v chart being printed; an aspect grid won't because the first -g turned it on while the second -g turned it off again. This can be useful, in say the -e everything switch. If you want all of Astrolog's charts except the astro-graph, you can do "astrolog -e -L", where the -e turns everything on and the -L turns the astro-graph chart, already on because of -e, off. In another example, to get a chart with only the stars in it, one can do "astrolog -R0 -RU", where the -R0 restricts everything, and the -RU unrestricts all the stars. The various -X switches which set a mode in graphics are also toggles. A combination like "-Xr -Xr" which with one instance will just go into reverse video mode, will remain out of it because the first -Xr put you in and the second toggled you back out. Note: The various static help listings that can be generated, such as the lists from -H, -O, -A, -I0, and -H0, may be combined with each other and even actual charts, and are treated like the normal charts. For convenience the program will terminate right away if the only thing specified is one of the tables, e.g. just "-H" will print the help list and exit, but "-H -i file -g" will print the help list followed by an aspect grid chart. Note: In the list below, greater than/less then symbols ('<' and '>') are used to denote a command switch parameter, brackets ('[' and ']') are used to denote an optional parameter, and commas are used to separate either/or choices. For example, the specification of the -I switch is "-I [<columns>]", meaning that one can specify the -I switch, followed a parameter for the number of columns, but that this extra parameter is optional. The specification of the -Xs switch is "-Xs <100,200,300,400>", meaning it can be used as either "-Xs 100", "-Xs 200", "-Xs 300", or "-Xs 400". An ellipsis ('..') generally refers to a list of values or an abbreviation for something already indicated in related switches. ---- Astrolog (version 4.10) command switches: -H: Display this help list. This option displays a list exactly like the one given above on the screen. Note: Concerning the list itself, PC users are accustomed to seeing command switches with a leading slash "/" instead of a dash "-". To accommodate this, this list of options available does, if the program has been compiled for a PC, display all the switches with a leading "/" instead of a "-". (On Unix and other systems they will still be displayed with the standard leading "-".) -Hc: Display program credits and copyrights. This help switch displays a full page of credits, listing the names of those who programmed Astrolog or parts of it, and important copyright information and other legal stuff. Every time the program is invoked, the -Hc switch is mentioned to use to see this info. -H0: Display names of zodiac signs and houses. The -H0 switch will display a list of the 12 signs of the zodiac, and the 12 houses, listing their standard and traditional names. This is similar to switches like -O or -A, in that it displays lists of things (objects, aspects, or in this case the signs) that Astrolog uses in its charts. -O: Display available planets and other celestial objects. Similar to the -A option below, the -O option will list all the planets and other celestial objects used by the program, and their numbers as recognized by the -R restrictions (mentioned later). This list will also show the zodiac signs that planets rule, fall in, are exalted in, and debilitated in. (Note that when -O is specified by itself, the program will exit right after the table is displayed.) -O0: Like -O but ignore object restrictions. The -O switch above simply displays a list of all the objects, cusps, uranians, and stars, along with their index numbers. This list can be affected by the -R restrictions, and the -C, -u, and -U switches must be included in order for all of Astrolog's objects to get listed. In order to make it easier to simply display a list of all 78 objects Astrolog recognizes, the -O0 option is just like -O by itself (and is equivalent to "-C -u -U -O") except that it will ignore all restrictions and always list every object. Stars are printed in the list along with their azimuth, altitude, and brightness values. -A: Display available aspects, their angles, and present orbs. The -A command switch gives a list of all 18 supported aspects, their abbreviations as used in the aspect grids, their angles, and their orbs. It will list the number of each aspect in addition to all the other info already there (e.g. conjunct = 1, opposition = 2, etc.) so one can easily figure out what exact number to pass to the -A option when changing the number of aspects used (see below). Finally, it will display a brief verbal description of what each aspect glyph look like. This is in case one doesn't know what aspects the weird symbols in the -g -X graphic displays are referring to. -I0 Display meanings of signs, houses, planets, and aspects. This will display the general meanings of each sign, each house, each planet, and each aspect, on the screen. This shows more or less the database the program uses to base its interpretations on (see -I switch charts later). -Q: Prompt for more command switches after display finished. Usually when Astrolog finishes printing the specified chart or charts, or when we leave a graphics screen mode, the program will terminate. However, sometimes one wants to display or work with lots of charts or options, which would normally cause them to have to invoke the program over and over again from their shell, using many processes, and can be slow loading over and over from a slow disk. Auto-termination is also bad when automatically starting up the program in an X window or DOS box - once the program finishes, the container will exit right away too, not allowing reading of the text charts. The -Q switch causes the program to enter a looping mode environment where (after the first chart is displayed) the user will automatically be prompted to enter a new set of command switches (using the no SWITCHES interface described later) which will be processed. This will go on and the program will run until you enter "." on a line for the switches to really terminate it. Program errors which normally cause Astrolog to exit right away, will (unless "fatal" errors) return the user back to this outer loop. What's more is that being in the loop doesn't cause all the minor program variables to be reset every time. The main things like what info to use and what charts to display must be specified each time, but minor modes (such as the present -x harmonic factor) won't, so say specify -x 5 once, and you will be casting fifth harmonic charts until you specify otherwise or exit the loop, not having to include -x each time. -Q0: Like -Q but prompt for additional switches on startup. This is just like -Q above except that the user will first be prompted for command switches right upon entering the program. Note that these will be in addition to whatever else was on the command line where the -Q0 itself was specified. This is mostly useful when running on a Windows system (see later) where one can have -Q0 as a default switch to pass to the program. Upon activation, the user will be in a loop with Astrolog asking for switches right away before proceeding to generate or prompt for any chart information. ---- Switches which determine the type of chart to display: -v: Display list of object positions (chosen by default). This is just a formal specification for the standard chart listing of the planetary positions. One will get this chart by default if they don't specify any other chart types, and they will get it along with everything else in the -e option (see below). Although it isn't necessary, it must be included if one wants this type of chart to be displayed along with some of the other chart types described below. -v0: Like -v but express velocities relative to average speed. This switch is just like -v except that it modifies the planet velocities fields slightly. (See later for a description of these velocity fields.) The -v switch normally expresses velocity values as an *absolute* quantity in degrees per day that the object appears to have moved through the zodiac. This means that outer planets will generally always have lower values, e.g. although a velocity of 0.010 degrees/day for fast moving Mercury means it's about to turn retrograde, the same velocity value is normal for slow moving Pluto. As it is useful to know when a planet is about to change direction, the -v0 switch will divide the actual velocity values by how fast each planet moves with respect to the Sun, meaning that all planets will have an average *relative* velocity value of 1.000, and in all cases, a velocity of 2.000 means the planet is moving twice as fast as normal, and one of 0.010 means the planet is about to turn retrograde. Note: The -v0 switch which expresses planetary velocities relative to average speed has a known incompatibility will cause some applying vs. separating aspect orbs to be inverted, i.e. displayed as applying when the reverse is true or vice versa. This affects app/sep aspect grids and aspect lists (-ga, -ma, and -D charts, but not the -T transit influence charts). This is because the velocities are used to determine applying vs. separating to see if one planet is overtaking another. The bug comes with the program thinking that, for example, Pluto moving 2 times faster than normal, will soon overtake Mars, slightly ahead of it in the zodiac, moving half normal speed. When the values are expressed as absolute speed, it's apparent that the outer planet Pluto always moves much slower than the more inner planet Mars even when Mars is moving half normal speed. This problem is at least not likely to come up much since only explicitly combining -v0 with -ga, -ma, or -D will cause a problem. -w [<rows>]: Display chart in a graphic house wheel format. Display of the chart in a nice wheel format is supported using the '-w' switch. (If one of the houses gets too 'full' of planets, the planet will be put at the beginning of the next house.) The same chart header information as is at the top of the standard -v chart is printed in the middle of the wheel. In addition, the day of the week that the date falls on, as well as the Julian day corresponding to the date and time of the chart, is shown. Note that this switch takes an optional parameter to specify the size in text rows of each house printed. By default this is four, but one may increase (realize this will make the chart require more than 24 lines to print) or decrease (don't know why you would want to, but you can) this value to their preference. The parameter may range from 1 to 10, and with this you can nicely generate a text wheel chart with all 79 objects in it, without overflowing all the houses. -w0 [..]: Like -w but reverse order of objects in houses 4..9. In the -w text wheel option, the objects in each house are printed from top to bottom in order from earliest in the house to latest. This looks good except for in houses 5..8 where this would appear backwards (e.g. a planet having just entered the 6th house from the 5th would be displayed right under the Descendant.) Therefore the objects from houses 4 through 9 are reversed and printed in order from bottom to top, making a more flowing looking wheel chart. If however, one always wants each house to be filled from its top to bottom regardless of which house, replace the -w with the -w0 switch -g: Display aspect and midpoint grid among planets. Aspects and midpoint display are supported: Invoke as astrolog -g and a rectangular grid showing the midpoint locations for each planet, and showing if any aspects are present and how accurate they are, is displayed. The planets are labeled down the main diagonal of the grid, with the aspects to the lower left and the midpoints in the upper right. This is of course often used along with the -A* switches. Both the aspect orbs and midpoints are displayed to the nearest minute, and on the main diagonal (or edges if a relationship aspect grid) is displayed the sign and degree of the planet in question in addition to the planet name itself. -g0: Like -g but flag aspect configurations (e.g. Yod's) too. Search through the aspect grid for major aspect configurations, including Grand Trines, T-Squares, Grand Crosses, Yod's, Cradles, and Stelliums, with the -g0 option. (In a Stellium, three objects must all be conjunct with each other.) This option will produce the same aspect grid that -g displays, but afterwards will go through the grid and list any of these aspect configurations and what objects are forming them. (Of course, to see any Yod's, one has to -A 6 or more so that Inconjuncts will be included in the aspect grid.) -g0: For comparison charts, show midpoints instead of aspects. For relationship aspect grids, the -g0 switch will display a midpoint grid instead of an aspect grid between the planets in the two charts e.g. "-r0 chart1 chart2 -g0". (See later for descriptions of the relationship charts.) -ga: Like -g but indicate applying instead of difference orbs. Ability to determine whether an aspect is applying or separating (is about to happen or just happened) is included in the -g option. Normally the aspect orbs are flagged as being '+' or '-' based on whether they are greater or less than the exact amount (e.g. a 91 degree Square has a +1 degree orb while a 89 degree one a -1 orb.) If one, however, invokes the -g option as -ga instead, an orb printed as 'a' will indicate an applying aspect while an orb with 's' a separating one. (To estimate applying vs. separating, the program examines the planetary positions and their relative velocities at the time in question.) -m: Display all object midpoints in sorted zodiac order. True midpoint charts are supported in addition to the midpoints that can be seen in the -g aspect grid. Use the -m switch and get a list of all midpoints printed out sorted in zodiac order. This will show both the actual midpoint location, as well as the angular difference between the two objects displayed to the nearest minute. So if you want to see, say, if any important midpoint is close to your Sun, this is a much easier chart to use than scrutinizing the midpoint/aspect grid. -m0: Like -m but list aspects ordered by influence instead. Aspects too may be displayed in a nice ordered list, instead of only in the -g aspect grid. Invoke the above switch as -m0 instead of just -m and get a list of every aspect from the aspect grid printed out one per line. The order in which they are printed is based on the total "power" in the aspect, i.e. the influence of the two planets in question, the aspect in question, and the orb. The same info and data from the -j influence charts (see below) are used here, so changing any default influences there will affect this ordering. The two planets are printed, the aspect they make, their orb, and then the power of the aspect used in ordering. Any power number more than 10 is a very major aspect. An exact Sun Moon conjunction can exceed 25. So, if you want to know, say, if that exact Mars Jupiter conjunction is more powerful than that wide Sun Moon sextile, try a -m0 chart and find out at least what Astrolog's opinion is. -m[0]a: Like -m0 but indicate applying and separating orbs. This is a shorthand way to bring up the -m0 sorted aspect chart, with the aspect orbs shown as applying vs. separating, instead of positive or negative offsets to the exact aspect size. This is like how -ga does the same thing with the -g aspect grid switch. To get the functionality of -ma without this, one would have to use -ga itself along with -m0, and then include -g by itself again ("-m0 -ga -g") to toggle the aspect grid off but leave applying vs. separating mode on! -Z: Display planet locations with respect to the local horizon. The text display switch -Z prints out where each object is on the local horizon in terms of altitude and azimuth. For each object, the following is displayed: Its altitude on the local horizon from +90 degrees (straight up) to -90 degrees (straight down), and its azimuth from 0..360 degrees, where 0 = due east, 90 = north, 180 = west, 270 = south. To make visualizing the azimuth easier, an "azimuth vector" with a N/S component and a W/E component is displayed, e.g. (1.00s 0.33w) means that the object is mainly south, with its true angle being formed by an vector component west that's 1/3 the strength of the south component, i.e. the object is about 18 degrees west of south. This along with the altitude should make it easy to physically point to where any planet is at any moment, making it easy to locate planets in the night sky. This feature can also be used to determine the times that a planet rises and sets. Also displayed are altitude and azimuth differences between each object and the Sun and Moon, first showing the number of degrees that the Sun/Moon is "ahead" (or farther east in the zodiac) of the object in question, and then the number of degrees that the Sun/Moon is above the object in question. This feature can be used to roughly predict eclipses! Both the Sun and Moon span about 0.5 degrees in the sky, therefore if both the azimuth and altitude differences are < 0.5 (or 1.0 if the difference is between the Sun and Moon themselves) then the object in question is probably being occulted somewhat by the Sun/Moon. Note that there are three types of planetary position displays: Right ascension and declination showing the object's position with respect to the stars, longitude and latitude showing where on the Earth the object is straight up (as in the astro-graph zenith locations), and finally azimuth and altitude showing the positions of the object relative to the local horizon. -Z0: Like -Z but express coordinates relative to polar center. This will do a text chart just like the -Z local horizon switch above except that it will print the location of each planet in prime vertical coordinates, instead of altitude and azimuth. Prime vertical coordinates are measured with its "azimuth" around the 360 degree circle, with 0 degrees due east on the local horizon, going down with 90 degrees straight down, 180 degrees due west and so on; declination "altitudes" are measured with positive values toward the north and negative toward the south. -Zd: Search day for object local rising and setting times. One can display the rising and setting times of the Sun, Moon, and planets with this feature. Specifically, when this switch is included, the program will, for the entire day specified in the chart information, display whenever a planet rises (specifically conjuncts the local horizon while in the eastern hemisphere), sets (conjuncts horizon in west), reaches its zenith point (or specifically conjuncts the meridian while in the southern hemisphere, i.e. is due south from the observer), and reaches its nadir point (conjuncts meridian in north). Note that some stars may be high or low enough that they will never rise or set, but instead will just "zenith" or "nadir" twice in a day as they spin around the pole. -S: Display x,y,z coordinate positions of planets in space. Solar system space based charts are available with the -S switch, which give the astronomical positions of each planet in terms of x, y, and z coordinates. Although not directly useful astrologically, it does give one a good view of how the planets actually were positioned at the time in question. For example, normal astrology doesn't make the distinction between the four different "forms" of say, a Mercury Venus Conjunction, i.e. they can either be Conjunct on the near side of the Sun, Conjunct on the far side of the Sun, or one can be on one side and the other on the other side. When the chart is actually displayed, for each body the following information is printed: The relative angle of the planet with respect to the central body, i.e. its zodiac position converted to the appropriate number from 0..360. This is followed by the x, y, and z coordinate positions of the object, in astronomical units from the central body. The x-axis increases in the direction of 0 degrees Aries (tropical zodiac), the y-axis increases in the direction of 0 degrees Cancer, and the z-axis is with respect to the Earth's orbit (meaning that the Sun and Earth always have a z-axis value of 0.0). Finally the overall length from the central body in AU is printed, which is just the diagonal as indicated by the x, y, z vectors. (The Earth and Sun are of course always about 1.0 AU from each other.) The Moon circles the Earth and isn't a part of the solar system proper; therefore, it is never in these charts. The -e everything option will include this chart in its listing of all the chart displays. (Note that the Earth doesn't have a formal object index of its own. Hence there's no real way to directly restrict it from these -S space charts either in text or graphics format. Only the -R0 (and -R1) restrict everything switches will affect this body, as they do all the others.) -j: Display astrological influences of each object in chart. Another chart type is available - interpretation of influences. This is the simplest part of the general interpretation ability of the program. What this part does is calculate the relative "power" of each planet's placement, giving a general idea of the prominent areas of a chart. When such a chart is printed, each planet is given a point value, larger numbers indicating more strength. Each planet's strength is divided between two fields: the positioning in and of itself, and the power of the aspects it makes with the other planets. In addition to each field, the total of these two areas is printed, as well as the relative percentage of the planet in question with respect to all the planets combined. Each planet gets a ranking for its positioning, aspects, and total power as well, with the strongest getting #1, the next strongest #2, etc. The -e option will include this chart along with all the others as well in it's listing of all the chart displays. To determine the strength of the positioning of a planet, various things are taken into account: 1) The power of a planet in and of itself, e.g. the Sun and Moon are more powerful then the other planets. 2) The house placement of a planet, e.g. a planet in the 1st house is more powerful than one in the 2nd. 3) Whether a planet is in the sign it rules or is exalted in, e.g. Jupiter in Sag results in more power to Jupiter. 4) Whether a planet is in the house corresponding to the sign it rules or is exalted in, e.g. Jupiter in the 9th house. 5) Planets get more power if the signs they rule are occupied, e.g. a bunch of stuff in Aquarius gives more power to Uranus. 6) Planets get more power if the houses they rule are occupied, e.g. a bunch of stuff in the 11th house gives power to Uranus. 7) Finally, planets get power according to what houses the cusps of which fall in the signs they rule, i.e. the ruler of the Ascendant (and to less extent the Midheaven, and so on) gets lots of influence. Determining the strength of a planet's aspects is much easier, and is basically composed of the sum of the strength of each aspect the planet makes. Taken into account are: 1) The influence of the planet being aspected to, e.g. Sun conjunct Jupiter gives more influence to Jupiter than Mercury conjunct Jupiter would. The planet's placement as described above plays a role, too, e.g. Venus opposition Mars in Aries gives more influence to Venus that it would be if Mars were in Taurus. 2) The influence of the aspect itself, e.g. Oppositions are more powerful then Sextiles. 3) Finally the orb of the aspect, i.e. exact aspects are more powerful than wide ones. (The influence of the orb varies linearly from max power at exact to zero power at the limit of the orb - sorry Maggie M. and Mark K. - no complex aspect wave functions, at least for this version :) Special thanks goes to Mark K. who initially presented this idea of interpreting overall influences to me. I basically just took his ideas, polished them a bit, and put it into the code. Interestingly, while programming this feature, I had a dream about him, in which he elaborated upon some of the ideas and even gave me suggestions for some of the planets' default power values (astral visitation?) And, while on the subject, I've had a couple of other Astrolog dreams; I had one neat one while working on the -h feature (described later) about a far distant future version of Astrolog that could actually teleport one to the places which they cast charts for :) -j0: Like -j but include influences of each sign as well. The -j planet influences in a chart feature can be expanded to include signs as well. Invoke it as -j0 instead of just -j, and in addition to getting the influence of each planet in a chart, one will get the influence of each sign in the chart as well. To determine sign influence, we use the planet powers already determined; a sign gets influence if: (1) There is a planet in it, (2) there is a planet in the house it corresponds to, and (3) if any planet that rules or co-rules it is in the chart. For example, with my 11th house Venus in Sagittarius, for me: (1) Sagittarius gets more power because Venus is in it, (2) Aquarius gets more power because Venus is in the 11th, and (3) Libra and Taurus get power because Venus itself rules these signs. The exact power given is based on the total influence of Venus already determined. Any sign that has over about 175 points or 20% of the total is a really powerful and fundamental part of the psyche. We also sum up the influences of all the signs (which will logically total up to the sum of all the planets), displaying the influence of each element as well, which is perhaps a more accurate version of the element table in the -v chart. -L [<step>]: Display astro-graph locations of planetary angles. The '-L' option will take the standard chart information and generate the astro-graph positions of the planets. In other words, this does the exact same thing that Jim Lewis' Astro*Carto*Graphy maps do. It will display the longitude of where on the Earth at the time in question each object was on the midheaven and on the nadir, and the latitude of where the planets actually appeared at zenith. Also, for latitude increments of 5 degrees, the longitude of where the objects appeared on the ascendant and descendant is displayed. For text screens, one can pass an optional parameter to this -L (or -L0) option to change the default latitude step rate at which the Ascendant and Descendant lines are computed. Again, this value is by default 5 degrees, although one can may increase or decrease it to any integer (subject to the restriction that the number 160 is divisible by it.) -L0 [..]: Like -L but display list of latitude crossings too. Determination of latitude crossing points is included in the astro-graph routines! The -L0 option will do the same thing as the -L option, except that after displaying the longitude and latitude locations of the Asc/Desc/MC/IC lines, it will then search among the lines and display (in order from farthest North to farthest South) the latitude of any points where lines cross each other. This includes the curvy Asc/Desc lines crossing the straight MC/IC lines as well as cases where different Asc/Desc lines cross themselves. And unlike Jim Lewis' Astro*Carto*Graphy, Astrolog will also display the longitude of the crossing (useful for Asc/Desc crossings) in addition to the latitude (as well allowing more planetary bodies to be included in the scan, and going farther North and South than Jim Lewis' printouts go.) Note however, that there is presently a small (very rare) minor omission glitch in the code, where if a crossing is within a couple of degrees of 180 deg W/E, it may not be displayed. -K: Display a calendar for given month. The -K switch generates a simple calendar for the month specified in the current chart. This is a standard type of chart generatable from a date so the -e everything switch includes this -K chart along with all the others. Note that this is technically a non-astrological chart, but generic calendars are useful and easy to generate with all of Astrolog's date determination features, so the option to create them using Astrolog is included. The calendars are compact, with one text row per week. The day specified in the current chart will be highlighted in green assuming -k Ansi color is active, e.g. "-n -K" will generate a chart for this month, with the number of today's date highlighted. -Ky: Like -K but display a calendar for the entire year. The -Ky switch is just like -K except that it will generate a calendar for the whole year. All twelve months will be displayed on the screen, each just like the individual monthly calendars above but printed in four rows of three months each. -d [<step>]: Print all aspects and changes occurring in a day. The '-d' option will take the standard chart information, and for the day in question, display the exact times of all aspects that occur. This is just like the aspects-per-day as displayed in Jim Maynard's Celestial Guide books. (Displayed in local time as defined by the default zone, with accuracy based on the searching divisions setting, described later.) This will tell any time two planets make aspects with each other, a planet changes its sign, or a planet goes retrograde or direct. Both the -d (and -T listed later) options will display the signs that any planets aspecting each other are in, in addition to the aspect itself (e.g. instead of just "Jupiter Trine Uranus", we have "Jupiter (Vir) Tri (Cap) Uranus". If a particular object is going retrograde, then its sign will be displayed in brackets instead of parentheses, and if a particular object is about to or has just gone retrograde or direct, then its sign will be in <>'s. This switch accepts an optional parameter for the searching divisions accuracy step value. This command line change of the divisions value can be done for other charts such as the -t transit search by using the switch toggle feature to turn -d off but still leave the divisions value set, e.g. "-d 100 -d -t" will set the value to 100 but not actually display the -d chart. -dm: Like -d but print all aspects for the entire month. The -d option can search the entire month for aspects between planets if one so desires. Specifying it as -dm instead of just -d will go through the entire month instead of just the current day. (Combining this one with -R allows searching for important aspects, sign changes, etc.) -dy: Like -d but print all aspects for the entire year. The -d option can search the entire given year for events as well, if it's specified as -dy instead of just -d or -dm. -dp <month> <year>: Print aspects within progressed chart. Another progression feature allows determining aspect times of progressed planets among themselves. The -dp <month> <year> switch will, like the -d option, display times of aspects and sign changes, for the time around the chart in question, except that they will be progressed throughout the month specified. Progressed planets move very slowly ("year for a day") so therefore there will usually be, if any, only a couple of aspects in a given month. Also, since they move so slow, the accuracy is cut down, so the dates given are probably only accurate about to the nearest day, in spite of the times given to the minute. Note that Astrolog can scan for aspects of: transiting planets among themselves (-d switch), transiting planets to natal planets (-T switch), progressed planets to natal planets (-Tp), and progressed planets among themselves (-dp). Only thing Astrolog can't directly do is do progressed planets to transiting planets, although that may change in a future version :) -dpy <year>: Like -dp but search for aspects within entire year. Since progressed planets move so slow and only a few aspects in a progressed chart will appear each month, one might want to instead scan the whole year. To do this, use the -dpy switch, which takes only one parameter for the year. This switch is consistent in format to how with the -T and -E switches one specifies an entire year. -dp[y]n: Search for progressed aspects in current month/year. The -dp progression event search option can be invoked as -dpn to search the current month, or -dpyn to search the entire current year. For example, if I want to search for the exact times of all aspects in my natal chart, progressed to any time this month, I simply do "-i mychartfile -dpn". -D: Like -d but display aspects by influence instead of time. This switch will display a chart listing all aspects in effect within the chart in question, in order by influence based on their power when transiting. This chart focuses upon and gives precedence to aspects of outer planets with each other, as opposed to common inner planet configurations. For example, at this time in early January 1994 the most influential aspects in effect are the Uranus Neptune conjunction and the Saturn Pluto square. This chart is very much like the format of the -m0 aspect list chart, except that we are using the transit as opposed to natal influences of the planets. The -m0 chart is most appropriate for a person's natal chart, in that the inner planets are focused upon, such as a Sun Moon square will be near the top of the list. This -D chart is more appropriate for times as opposed to people, since it focuses upon rare outer planet configurations. This chart is also very similar to the -T transit influence chart, in that it shows the aspect, applying or separating orb, and power of the event with its present orb, except that this does influences of transiting planets among themselves as opposed to aspects to a natal chart. If you want to see what major events are coming up, and don't want things such as Uranus Neptune conjunctions to "sneak by", use this chart and watch the configuration gradually rise to the top of the list as its orb narrows over time. This chart may be combined with others and is included in the -e everything switch. -E: Display planetary ephemeris for given month. The -E option will generate a quick ephemeris of the planet positions each day for the month indicated in the given chart, as taken from the standard interface. This is useful if you just want to see an overview of what's happening some month in the sky. Any dots after a planet location in the list indicate the planet was retrograde at the time that day. For example, to see the ephemeris for someone's birth month, one can do the convenient "-i chartfile -E", or to see the ephemeris for this month, do "-n -E" (see -i and -n options later). Note: The ephemeris listings obtain the time (and time zone) to cast each day's chart for (e.g. noon, midnight) from the chart information given it, instead of always defaulting to something like midnight in the default time zone. This is a bit more flexible since one may want to specify a noon or 6:00am or whatever ephemeris which wouldn't be possible otherwise. The -qm <month> <year> switch (see later) always uses midnight for the time and the default for the time zone, so when using this switch with -E, the results will be a midnight ephemeris in this default zone. However, something like -i yourchart -E to do an ephemeris for your birth month will display the positions each day at your birthtime instead of at midnight. -Ey: Display planetary ephemeris for the entire year. To display an ephemeris for all twelve months in an entire year, invoke the -E switch as -Ey. For example, to get an ephemeris for all of last year, one can do "-qy 1992 -Ey" (see -qy and -qm options below). -e: Print all charts together (i.e. -v-w-g0-m-Z-S-j0-L0-K-d-D-E). There are twelve main different formats of chart display available: The standard listing of planet positions, which you get without any switches or with the -v option, the aspect/midpoint grid you get with -g, the house wheel you get with -w, and the charts generated with the -m, -Z, -S, -j, -L, -K, -d, -D, and -E options. The -e "everything" option will display the chart in all twelve of these formats for about 1000 lines and 60K bytes of text! Note that one can even include the -t and/or -T transit options below and include yet a couple more chart formats in the list (however transits require a time parameter to do transits for so they aren't really a single chart display and hence aren't included in -e by default). -t <month> <year>: Compute all transits to natal planets in month. The '-t <month> <year>' option will scan the entire month specified, and print out any transits that happen, in that month, to the planet positions as listed in the current chart, as taken from the standard interface. There will be quite a few, even though fast moving objects like the Moon aren't looked at by default (unless specified in the default parameter file or with the -RT switch), so you might want to use this with the -R option to limit this to just certain planets. (The times are displayed in the local time zone, and are generally accurate to within a half hour or so; Try doing it for your birth month and your own chart - All planets should conjunct their natal positions at about the time of your birth.) To determine transits to natal house cusps other than the Asc and MC, i.e. when does a planet change house in your natal chart, include the -C switch described later. See the -RT option, as well as the "smart cusps" default, described later, for options which directly affect this feature. -tp <month> <year>: Compute progressions in month for chart. Determining dates of transits of progressed planets to natal planets can be done with the -tp <month> <year> option. This is just like the -t option, except that the exact aspects of progressed planets (rather than transiting planets) to the planets in the chart are displayed. Progressions occur much less often than transits, and there will only be a few, if any, in a given month, so one might to invoke this as -Tpy, as described below. -t[p]y: <year>: Compute transits/progressions for entire year. To display transits for an entire year, invoke the -t switch as -ty (-tpy for progressions), which only takes one parameter, the year. For example, "-i chartfile -ty 1994". -t[p]Y: <year> <years>: Compute transits for a number of years. One may also search an arbitrary number of years at once for transits. One uses the -tY <year> <years> switch like the -ty <year> switch above, except that -tY takes an extra parameter for how many years to search. For example, -tY 1994 10 will search the ten years from 1994 through 2003 for whatever transits. With a negative value for the years to scan, it will start that many years before the given year, e.g. -tY 1993 -10000 will scan the previous 100 centuries for transits, starting with 8005 B.C.! Note that this switch may also be invoked as "-tYn <years>", in which case it will start from the current year and be an equivalent shorthand to "-tY 1994 <years>" for this year at least. -t[py]n: Compute transits to natal planets for current time now. This feature is a quick shorthand way to generate transits for the current month. For example, instead of "astrolog -i chartfile -t 1 1994", one can do "astrolog -i chartfile -tn". To do transits for the entire current year, invoke it as "-tyn".