   Table Of Contents

Person Menu

New Person

Open Person

Options And Settings Menu

Daily Horoscope Date

Program Options

Sky Map Menu

Natal Sky Map

Daily Sky Map

Chart Data Menu

Natal Data

Daily Data

Tables And Graphs Menu

Aspects/Transits Table

Graphs

Horoscopes Menu

Natal Horoscope

Daily Horoscope

Love Compatibility

General Information

Astrology Terms

About Astrology

About Lifestyle Software Group

About The Authors


The Orb is the difference between the angular longitudes of two planets and the angular difference of a particular aspect. For example, if the Sun is square Moon with an orb of 1 degree, the Sun is within 1 degree of being exactly 90 degrees away from the Moon. The 'orb' in this case is said to be 1 degree.  Another aspect could be Mars opposite Moon with an orb of 2 degrees (in this case, Mars is 180 degrees away from the moon, plus or minus 2 degrees).


         Aspects/Transits Table

ASPECTS is the angular difference between the longitude of two planets which has astrological significance. For example, Venus SEXTILE Mars means that Venus is 60 degrees away from Mars. Five aspects have significance:

CONJUNCT 	aspect = 0 degrees. The meanings of the two planets

 combine--forces concentrate.

SEXTILE 	aspect = 60 degrees. The two planets complement

each other harmoniously.

SQUARE 	aspect = 90 degrees. The planets obstruct/conflict

with each other, creating friction/tension.

TRINE  	aspect = 120 degrees. The two planets

counterbalance each other harmoniously.

OPPOSITE 	aspect = 180 degrees. The two planets pull in opposite

directions, undermining or destroying the existing order.


TRANSITs occur when a planet's longitude today creates an aspect with a planet's longitude at  the time of your birth. Thus, Sun conjunct Sun means that the Sun's longitude today is conjunct  with its longitude at the time of your birth. Another transit might be Venus sextile Neptune (which means than Venus (today) is sextile the position of Neptune (at the time of your birth).  Each type of transit (conjunct, sextile, square, opposite, trine) has a unique astrological significance.

CONJUNCT 	aspect = 0 degrees. The meanings of the two planets

 combine--forces concentrate.

SEXTILE 	aspect = 60 degrees. The two planets complement

each other harmoniously.

SQUARE 	aspect = 90 degrees. The planets obstruct/conflict

with each other, creating friction/tension.

TRINE	aspect = 120 degrees. The two planets

counterbalance each other harmoniously.

OPPOSITE 	aspect = 180 degrees. The two planets pull in opposite

directions, undermining or destroying the existing order.


From time to time, some of the planets temporarily go RETROGRADE (backwards from their normal path) across the sky. This apparent motion is an artifact of the Earth's own motion around the sun.


JULIAN DAY is the number of days since the beginning of the Julian calendar (noon 4713 B.C.) Astronomical calculations are based on this calendar system.


GMST stands for Greenwich Mean Sidereal Time and specifies the person's time of birth relative to Greenwich, England.


LMST or Local Mean Sidereal Time is the solar (sidereal) time for the person's birthplace and time. The LMST is used in planetary calculations.


ECLIPTIC LONGITUDE relates the position of the planets in the sky relative to the Prime Meridian (which is an imaginary arc across the sky which bisects the North and South Celestial Poles. It is commonly used in astrology.


EQUATORIAL DECLINATION gives the position of the planets relative to the celestial equator. Note that the planets tend to have similar declinations since they orbit the sun in a plane (the ecliptic).


ASCENDANT is the zodiac sign that was on the eastern horizon at the time of birth. It is very  important to the horoscope as it represents a the person's personality.


MIDHEAVEN (MC)  is the zodiac sign at zenith (directly overhead) at the time of birth.


LONGITUDE is the number of degrees east or west of Greenwich, England and pinpoints the person's place of birth. Lines of longitude run from the North to South pole.  For example, 097  31 West means 97 degrees West and 31 minutes. The United States is in the Western hemisphere since it is West of Greenwich, England.


LATITUDE is the number of degrees north or south of the equator and also pinpoints the person's place of birth. Lines of latitude are parallel to the equator.  For example, 42  22 North means 42 degrees North and 22 minutes. The United States is in the Northern hemisphere since it is North of the Equator.


House CUSPs mark the border (or start) of a house. For example, if the 1st house cusp lies at 03 ARI  22, the start of the 1st house lies 3 degrees, 22 minutes into Aries.


Elements
The ELEMENTS are FIRE, EARTH, AIR, WATER. Certain zodiac signs are associated with certain elements. For example, if Jupiter lies in Aries it is said to lie in a Fire sign.

Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius are FIRE signs.

Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn are EARTH signs.

Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius are AIR signs.

Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces are WATER signs.


Modalities
The MODALITIES are CARDINAL, FIXED and MUTABLE. Certain zodiac signs are associated with certain modalities. For example, if Jupiter lies in Aries it is said to lie in a Cardinal sign.

Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn are CARDINAL signs.

Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius are FIXED signs.

Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces are MUTABLE signs.


Parallel Aspects
PARALLEL ASPECTS occur when two planets have parallel declinations. The magnitude of the declination of the two planets must be nearly the same (1 degree Orb), but with opposite signs. For example if the Sun has a declination of +5 degrees and Saturn has a declination of -5.5 degrees, they are said to be parallel with a  0.5 degree orb.


Zodiac Signs
The 12 ZODIAC SIGNS are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces.


PLANET POSITIONS are accurate within 1 minute of arc for all planets except pluto (which has a maximum error of 15 minutes) for any epoch within 300 years of 1991. The calculations are based on a US Naval Observatory paper (Flandern and Pulkkinen) on planetary positions.

In astrology, the Sun and Moon are loosely referred to as "planets". The planets used in astrology are the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.


House Systems
Three HOUSE SYSTEMS are supported by AstroScopes: the Placidus, Equal House, and Koch systems. A horoscope calculated with the Placidus system, for example, will be slightly different than a  horoscope calculated with the Equal house system. These differences become exaggerated for people born at extremely northern latitudes. For a complete technical explanation of these house systems, consult a good book on astrology.

PLACIDUS HOUSES is the most commonly used astrological system for calculating the cusps of the 12 houses. It dates back several centuries. It employs a unique method of trisecting the diurnal semi-arc (arc around the horizon) in order to compute the longitudes (and resulting zodiac signs) of the house cusps.

KOCH HOUSE system is a relatively recent system for computing house cusps and may be  growing in popularity. It also employs a method for trisecting the diurnal semi-arc.

EQUAL HOUSES is the simplest and most ancient system for calculating the longitudes of the house cusps. In this system, all house cusps are 30 degrees apart.


Natal Chart

The natal (or birth) chart reveals the general patterns and possibilities for a person's entire life.


Daily Chart

The daily chart (eg. today's horoscope) reveals relevant information about a specific day in time.


New User
New Person

AstroScopes needs you to enter your personal profile as a 'Person' so that it can find out about your birth date and birth place (longitude and latitude). After typing in your name (at least 3 letters, please), the person window appears.


Open User
Open Person

AstroScopes prompts you with a list of existing 'Persons' in the AstroScopes database. Simply double-click the mouse on a highlighted person (or press the OPEN button). The person window will appear.

The person's information is automatically saved to disk when you select OK on the person window. Before any horoscope can be computed, you must either OPEN someone's astrological data from disk, or select in New Person to type in new information.

You can also delete persons by highlighting a person name and then pressing the DELETE button.


User Window
Person Window

The 'Person' window prompts you for personal information about your birth date, birth time, and birth location (longitude and latitude).  You must enter all of the information for an accurate horoscope. Click the LEFT mouse button on the up arrow or down arrow next to each field to change the field's value.

Enter the LONGITUDE in degrees, minutes, and hemisphere. For example, 097  31 West means 97 degrees West and 31 minutes. The United States is in the Western hemisphere since it is West of Greenwich, England.

The birth LATITUDE is in degrees, minutes, and hemisphere. For example, 42  22 North means 42 degrees North and 22 minutes. The United States is in the Northern hemisphere since it is North of the Equator.

The Map Buttons:

If you don't know the longitude and latitude of your birthplace, click on the appropriate map button (either the USA map, CANADA map, EUROPE map, or WORLD map). On the  map window can have two choices: you can either type in the city name of your birth or click the mouse over the portion of the map where you were born.


Map Window

The map window prompts you for the location of your birth. Remember that longitude lines run North and South while latitude lines run East and West. If the map on the screen looks distorted from what you are used to seeing in Atlases, do not despair! We have created an unusual projection of the globe for AstroScopes for improved accuracy.

For greatest accuracy, you can type in the name of the city where you were born.  For example, if you were born in Dallas, Texas, you would type: 'Dallas TX'. The case is not significant, so 'dallas tx' would do just as nicely. You could also type in 'Dallas', since Dallas, Texas is the only 'Dallas' in the database. Use the two letter abbreviation for states after the city name, to limit the search to one state within the United States.

For Canadian cities, use the two letter abbreviation for province names (for example 'Toronto ON').

For other international cities, you might type in something like 'London ENGLAND', 'Paris FRANCE', 'Sydney AUSTRALIA', or 'Hanover GERMANY'.

If the city is NOT in AstroScopes's database, you must move the mouse pointer over the desired location on the map and click the LEFT mouse button. A cross-hair should appear, and the longitude and latitude will appear on the screen.

Click on the DONE button to return to the person window with this new longitude and latitude.

Click on the NEW CITY button to enter a new city into the AstroScopes' city database. You might want to add some small towns in your area to the database for easy retrieval in the future.


New City
Adding Cities To AstroScopes's Database

AstroScopes includes a database which contains the longitude and latitude of  many cities in the USA, Canada, and the world. You may want to add some overlooked cities (or small towns) in your area to the database. City names can only be 20 letters in length, so abbreviate if necessary.

Simply type in the city name (or location name) and enter its longitude and latitude.

Name cities in the USA like the following examples:

    Miami FL, Groves TX, San Diego CA, Boston MA, etc.

Name cities in Canada like the following:

    Toronto ON, Montreal PQ, etc.

For cities outside the USA & Canada, name cities like this:

    London ENG, Sydney AUS, Paris FRA, Tokyo JAP, etc.

Including an abbreviation for the country name will help avoid confusion when AstroScopes finds Paris, Texas when you wanted Paris, France!

You can also edit the city database from within a word processor. Simply load the text file 'cities.dat' and add/delete cities as you wish. Be careful to enter new cities EXACTLY as the other cities in the file. Do NOT use tab characters (use the space bar to line up the longitudes and latitudes).  Be sure to save a copy of the original file in case you inadvertently make the 'cities.dat' file unreadable by AstroScopes.


Birth Time

The BIRTH TIME field prompts you for the exact time of your birth.  Click on the up/down arrows to enter the hours and minutes then select either AM or PM. (Remember that midnight is 12 A.M. and noon is 12 P.M.).

The TIME ZONE field prompts you for the time zone of your birth place. For example, 0 hours is GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), -5 hours is EST (Eastern Standard Time), -6 hours is CST (Central Standard Time), -7 hours is MST (Mountain Standard Time), and -8 hours is PST (Pacific Standard Time). If in doubt about the time zone, consult an atlas.

STANDARD/WAR/DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME

If you were born during War Time or Daylight Savings Time, click the up/down arrow to make the desired selection. (Remember that during War Time or Daylight Savings Time, ONE hour was added to Standard Time). Some localities in United States have adopted Daylight Savings Time in the past, so the time of day on your birth certificate may be shifted by one hour. Two excellent references about time standards are Doris Doane's books, 'Time Changes in the USA', and 'Time Changes in the World'.


Birth Date

The BIRTH DATE field prompts you for the month, day and year of your birth. The calendar system used by AstroScopes is the Gregorian Calendar (which is the international standard).

The Gregorian calendar was adopted by Pope Gregory to correct the old Julian Calendar errors which had accumulated over 1200 years. To set things right, Pope Gregory decreed that October 4, 1582 would be followed by October 15, 1582. The Gregorian calendar wasn't adopted by Britain and the USA until September 2, 1752 (thus Sept 2, 1752 was followed by Sept 14, 1752 in the USA).

ANCIENT JULIAN CALENDAR

If you ever need to convert an ancient Julian Calendar date to the modern Gregorian Calendar (to run horoscopes for famous historical figures, for example), you need to add a certain number of days to the Julian Calendar date. The following table tells you how many days to add:

 Julian Century:       Days to Add:

    20th                               13

    19th                               12

    18th                               11

    17th,16th                      10

    15th                                 9

    14th                                 8

    13th,12th                        7

    11th                                 6

    10th                                 5

     9th,8th                           4

     7th                                  3

     6th                                  2

     5th,4th                           1

     3rd                                  0

     2nd                                -1

     1st                                 -2

So if Eric the Viking were born on Mar 3, 944 (10th century) in the Julian Calendar, you would need to add 5 days to the date to convert it to the Gregorian Calendar equivalent. This would make it the Gregorian date (and AstroScopes date) of Mar 11, 944.


Graphs

After selecting this menu option, a graph window appears with controls to allow you to look at various bar and pie charts of the following data:

Aspects(compare the number of various aspects and compare the orb strengths. Remember that a small orb means that this aspect will have a powerful effect on your natal horoscope).

Transits (compare the number of various transits and compare the orb strengths. Remember that a small orb means that this transit will have a powerful effect on your daily horoscope).

Declinations (compare the positive and negative declinations of the planets).

Angular speed (compare the speed at which the planets are moving across the sky).

You can PRINT any graph by clicking on the print button.


 Daily Horoscope Date

Enter the daily horoscope date to specify the date and time for which you want to generate a daily horoscope, daily sky map, or daily data. For example, if you want to print your daily horoscope for your birthday next month, simply set the daily date to next month and then print your horoscope.

IMPORTANT TIP!

The daily date window remains open until you decide to close it. Leave this window open and put it off on the corner of your computer screen so that you can change the daily date at any time. This feature is especially useful when you are looking at the daily sky map because you can advance ahead in time and look for particular alignments of planets. You can leave the aspects/transits table on the screen too, so that you can look for when a particular transit (eg. Moon Sextile Jupiter) will occur.

A TYPICAL SCREEN MIGHT LOOK LIKE THIS:

 Enter date, time, longitude, and latitude information on this window just as you did on the person window.


Miscellaneous
Program Options

MAX ORB SIZE

You can set the maximum orb for both natal horoscopes and daily horoscopes. The bigger the orb size, the more aspects AstroScopes will detect.

For example, lets say that the Sun and Mars are 3.5 degrees apart. If the max natal orb is 3 degrees, then AstroScopes will decide that the Sun is not conjunct Mars. If, however, the max natal orb is set to 4 degrees, then AstroScopes will decide that since the Sun and Mars are only 3.5 degrees apart, they are indeed conjunct.

The default values for these maximum orb is 7 degrees for the max natal orb and 2 degrees for the max daily orb.

HOUSE SYSTEMS

Three house systems are supported by AstroScopes: the Placidus, Equal House, and Koch systems. A horoscope calculated with the Placidus system, for example, will be slightly different than a  horoscope calculated with the Equal house system. These differences become exaggerated for people born at extremely northern latitudes. For a complete technical explanation of these house systems, consult a good book on astrology.

PLACIDUS HOUSES is the most commonly used astrological system for calculating the cusps of the 12 houses. It dates back several centuries. It employs a unique method of trisecting the diurnal semi-arc (arc around the horizon) in order to compute the longitudes (and resulting Zodiac Signs of the house cusps.

KOCH HOUSE system is a relatively recent system for computing house cusps and may be  growing in popularity. It also employs a method for trisecting the diurnal semi-arc.

EQUAL HOUSES is the simplest and most ancient system for calculating the longitudes of the house cusps. In this system, all house cusps are 30 degrees apart.

DISPLAY OPTIONS

Choose either TEXT ONLY  to generate horoscopes which contain only text or TEXT AND GRAPHICS to generate horoscopes which contain both text and pictures.

TEXT ONLY horoscopes can be copied to the clipboard in text format, making it easy to paste AstroScopes' horoscopes to a Windows text editor (such as Notepad, for example). One could then edit the horoscope, adding information or personal interpretations, etc. (Most Windows word processors and text editors have a menu called 'Edit' where you can paste in text from the clipboard.)

The currently displayed portion of a TEXT AND GRAPHICS horoscopes can be copied  to the clipboard as a bitmap (picture) and pasted into a Windows desktop publisher or paintbrush program. (Most Windows paintbrushes have a menu called 'Edit' where you can paste in pictures from the clipboard.)

SOUND OPTIONS

VOICE NARRATION ENABLED:  Enables narration of parts of the natal horoscope and love compatibility horoscope.

MUSIC ENABLED:  Enables the musical score when the program starts up and the random playing of music while the program is running.


Natal Data

The natal data provides the more experienced astrologer with the calculations and tables AstroScopes uses to create the natal horoscope.  The GMST, LMST, Julian Day, the positions of the planets (plus Ascendant and Midheaven) in Ecliptic Longitude and Equatorial Declination,  the House Cusps, planetary aspects,  Elements,  Modalities,  Parallel Aspects, retrograde planets are all presented in tabular form.

By pressing the PRINT button, you can send the natal data to your printer.

By pressing the TO CLIPBOARD button, you can copy the natal data (text) to Windows clipboard. Press this button if you want to paste this text into another Windows program.

Press the DONE button when you are done viewing the natal data. The main menu will reappear at the top of the window.


Natal Sky Map

The sky at the instant of your birth is drawn on the screen from a geocentric (Earth at center) perspective. The default map depicts the planets in their appropriate zodiac signs.

Choose the SHOW HOUSE CUSPS button to overlay the sky map with the person's house cusps.

By pressing the PRINT button, you can send the sky map to your printer.

By pressing the TO CLIPBOARD button, you can copy the sky map picture (bitmap) to Window's clipboard.  The picture could then be pasted into another Windows' program.

Press the DONE button when you are done viewing the sky map. The main menu will reappear at the top of the window.


Daily Data

The daily data provides the more experienced astrologer with the calculations and tables AstroScopes uses to create the daily horoscope.  The GMST, LMST, Julian Day, the positions of the planets (plus Ascendant and Midheaven) in Ecliptic Longitude and Equatorial Declination,  the House Cusps, planetary aspects,  Elements,  Modalities,  Parallel Aspects, retrograde planets are all presented in tabular form.

Open the Daily Horoscope Date window from the Options Menu (if it is not already open) to quickly change the date for which the data is displayed. This window allows you to easily move ahead or back in time to look for desired alignments of the planets.

By pressing the PRINT button, you can send the daily data to your printer.

By pressing the TO CLIPBOARD button, you can copy the daily data (text) to Windows clipboard. This allows you to paste this text into another Windows program.

Press the DONE button when you are done viewing the daily data. The main menu will reappear at the top of the AstroScopes main window.


Daily Sky Map

The sky at the DAILY date and time is drawn on the screen from a geocentric (Earth at center) perspective. The default map depicts the planets in their appropriate zodiac signs.

Choose the SHOW HOUSE CUSPS button to overlay the sky map with the person's house cusps.

Open the Daily Horoscope Date window from the Options Menu (if it is not already open) to quickly change the date for which the sky map is displayed.

By pressing the PRINT button, you can send the sky map to your printer.

By pressing the TO CLIPBOARD button, you can copy the sky map picture (bitmap) to Window's clipboard.  The picture could then be pasted into another Windows' program.

Press the DONE button when you are done viewing the sky map. The main menu will reappear at the top of the window.


Natal Horoscope

The Natal (or birth) Horoscope gives you the general 'flavor' of a person and their potential in life. It is subdivided into CHARACTER, DISPOSITION, MENTALITY, AFFECTIONS, PERSONALITY, and GENERAL INFORMATION.

The Natal Horoscope is based on the relative positions of the 10 planets at birth (in astrology, the Sun and Moon are considered 'planets') with respect to each other and with respect to the 12 house cusps and the 12 zodiac signs. The ecliptic, or imaginary circular band in the sky around the Earth, is divided into 12 regions (each of 30 degrees of arc). Each region has its own zodiac sign. The 12 signs of the zodiac are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra,  Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. As the planets move across the sky, they move from one zodiac region into another.

By pressing the PRINT button, you can send the natal horoscope to your printer.

By pressing the TO CLIPBOARD button, you can copy the natal horoscope to Windows clipboard. If the horoscope is TEXT ONLY (see miscellaneous options), AstroScopes will copy the horoscope in text format to the clipboard (so you could paste it into Notepad, for example). If the horoscope is TEXT AND GRAPHICS, AstroScopes will copy whatever portion of the horoscope you have displayed to Windows clipboard as a bitmap (which you could later paste into Windows' Paintbrush program).

Press the DONE button when you are done viewing the natal horoscope. The main menu will reappear at the top of the window.


Daily Horoscope

The Daily Horoscope tells you what is going on in your life today! It is subdivided into SELF, FAMILY AND FRIENDS, CAREER AND FINANCE, CONFLICTS, ROMANCE.

The Daily Horoscope is based on the positions of the planets TODAY relative to both the positions of the planets at birth and the person's house cusps. Thus if today Mercury's ecliptic longitude places it between the 1st and 2nd house cusps, Mercury is said to lie in the first house. Similarly, if Mercury's longitude today is the same as Mercury's longitude at the time of your birth, Mercury is said to be transitting Mercury (Mercury CONJUNCT Mercury). If Mercury (today) were 90 degrees from Mercury (at the time of birth), the transit would be Mercury SQUARE Mercury.

Open the Daily Horoscope Date window from the Options Menu (if it is not already open) to quickly change the date for which the daily horoscope is displayed. You can easily move ahead or back in time to look for desired alignments of the planets.

By pressing the PRINT button, you can send the daily horoscope to your printer.

By pressing the TO CLIPBOARD button, you can copy the daily horoscope to Windows clipboard. If the horoscope is TEXT ONLY (see miscellaneous options), AstroScopes will copy the horoscope in text format to the clipboard (so you could paste it into Notepad, for example). If the horoscope is TEXT AND GRAPHICS, AstroScopes will copy whatever portion of the horoscope you have displayed to Windows clipboard as a bitmap (which you could later paste into Windows' Paintbrush program).

Press the DONE button when you are done viewing the daily horoscope. The main menu will reappear at the top of the window.


Love Compatibility

After choosing the love compatibility menu option, you are provided with a list of people to choose from. Simply choose a lover from the list and then read the compatibility information AstroScopes provides you with.

By pressing the PRINT button, you can send the love compatibility horoscope to your printer.

By pressing the TO CLIPBOARD button, you can copy the love compatibility horoscope to the Windows clipboard.

Press the DONE button when you are done viewing the natal horoscope. The main menu will reappear at the top of the window.


Astrology Terms

Ascendant

Aspects

Conjunct

Daily Chart

Ecliptic Longitude

Elements

Equal House

GMST

House Cusps

House Systems

Julian Day

Koch

Latitude

Longitude

LMST

Midheaven

Modalities

Natal Chart

Opposite

Orb

Parallel Aspects

Placidus

Planet Positions

Retrograde

Sextile

Square

Transits

Trine

Zodiac Signs


About Astrology

Astrology has been practiced by man for thousands of years; it is one of the world's oldest religions. For millennia, man has looked to the heavens for insight into his troubles and for meaning in his life. Perhaps the earliest horoscope (2767 B.C.) was cast by Egyptian named Imhotep, the architect of the Great Steppe Pyramid at Saqqarah. Astrology was practiced by the Greeks, Babylonians, Indians, Chaldeans, and Chinese. Many early astronomers, including Ptolemy, Kepler, Copernicus, and Nostradamus, also practiced astrology.

NATAL HOROSCOPE

The Natal (or birth) Horoscope is based on the relative positions of the 10 planets at birth (in astrology, the Sun and Moon are considered 'planets') with respect to each other and with respect to the 12 house cusps and the 12 zodiac signs. The ecliptic, or imaginary circular band in the sky around the Earth, is divided into 12 regions (each of 30 degrees of arc). Each region has its own zodiac sign. The 12 signs of the zodiac are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra,  Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. As the planets move across the sky, they move from one zodiac region into another.

The 12 house cusps are similar to the zodiac regions, but where the zodiac is the same for all people, the location of the house cusps varies from one person to the next. The position of these house cusps in the zodiac is determined at birth (by your time and location of birth).

HOW AN EQUAL HOUSE CHART "WHEEL" IS CREATED

Your chart can be created by drawing the familiar 12 spoked "wheel" where each spoke represents a house cusp (or boundary between houses), and then writing down the name of your Ascendant beside the first house cusp and then the next sign of the zodiac on the second house cusp, and so on. Now you have the zodiac signs for  your 12 house cusps on your "wheel". Next you place the planets in their proper locations within the wheel (by consulting an ephemeris or using AstroScopes) by determining which zodiac sign they lay in at the time of your birth. This wheel is your natal chart and is also a basis for your daily chart.

PLACIDUS/KOCH VERSUS EQUAL HOUSE SYSTEM

The Placidus and Koch house systems take into account the effect the latitude of your birth has on the angle between the ecliptic (band of the zodiac) and the celestial equator. At high northern latitudes, the Placidus and Koch systems will differ greatly from the Equal House system (which works best for latitudes relatively close to the equator). At high northern latitudes (with a large angle), the Placidus and Koch systems may place the same sign on more than one house cusp. (This is not an error or a bug in the program!)

The Equal house system doesn't account for your latitude in its calculations of the house cusps. Therefore, each house cusp is an equal 30 degrees (and one zodiac sign) apart. The Equal House system is the oldest of the three systems and was developed by the ancients.

DAILY HOROSCOPE

The Daily Horoscope is based on the positions of the planets TODAY relative to both the positions of the planets at birth and the person's house cusps. Thus, if Mercury's longitude today is the same as Mercury's longitude at the time of your birth, Mercury is said to be transitting Mercury (Mercury CONJUNCT Mercury). If Mercury (today) were 90 degrees from Mercury (at the time of birth), the transit (aspect) would be Mercury SQUARE Mercury. Similarly, if Mercury's ecliptic longitude today places it between the 1st and 2nd house cusps (of your natal chart), Mercury is said to lie in the first house

Note that while the position of the planets is always changing, the planets furthest from the Sun (like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) take a long time to move discernible distances on the daily chart. Thus, their effects on the horoscope are more longer lasting and more SUBTLE than the inner planets, (like Mercury, Venus, and the Moon), whose effects are fleeting but quite INTENSE.

This explains why your daily horoscope sometimes appears unchanged. If, for example, Pluto is transitting the 5th house, you will notice that this portion of your daily horoscope remains unchanged for a long time. That is because Pluto is so far away from the Earth and moves very slowly across the sky (and into the 6th house). In fact, it takes almost 250 years for Pluto to make one complete orbit around the Sun (and hence, around the Earth)! That means it will take Pluto almost 250 years to cycle through the 12 houses!

LOVE COMPATIBILITY HOROSCOPES

Love compatibility horoscopes are determined by comparing the moon signs of two different people. The Moon rules your emotions and desires and thus plays the major role in determining your ideal mate.


About Lifestyle Software Group

If you are interested in AstroScopes for the Macintosh or AstroScopes for DOS contact:

Lifestyle Software Group

63 Orange Street

Saint Augustine, FL 32084

904-825-0220

Some other Windows products from Lifestyle Software:

Multimedia Workout (Weight training, aerobic training, nutrition, chart progress, video instruction)

Stereograms! (Create the 3D pictures you've seen displayed in malls on your own computer!)

Multimedia Tarot (The ancient tarot cards come to life with animation and sound. Choose among the Celtic Cross (10 card), Triangle (7 card), and Question (3 card) spreads.)

Multimedia Pool (arcade-like simulation of Eight Ball, Nine Ball, Straight Pool, and Bumper Pool).

DietPro (complete nutrient, diet, and exercise balancer).

Micro Kitchen Companion (organize your recipes!)

Hi-Q (complete IQ test and games to improve your IQ).

Please call for a complete listing of Lifestyle Software Products. Several DOS titles are:

DietPro (complete nutrient, diet, and exercise balancer).

Fractal Paint Plus (a practical graphic tool set/paintbrush program--3D landscapes, Mandelbrot sets, Snowflakes, Collages, Cellular Automata).

Micro Bridge Companion (comprehensive system for all bridge players).

Micro Wine Companion (a powerful database tool for wine inventory control).


About The Authors
About the Authors/Credits

Jeffrey S Smith conceived, designed, and wrote this program. He received his B.A. in physics from the University of Virginia in 1987 and currently resides in Saint Augustine, Florida. He became interested in ancient religions (including astrology) during college. Jeff has been doing freelance software development since 1988 and can be reached by mail at the following address:

Jeffrey S Smith

c/o Lifestyle Software Group

63 Orange Street

Saint Augustine FL 32084

Jeffrey S Smith owns the copyright to all program code, to all art (except where otherwise noted) including the opening credits screen , to the love compatibility horoscopes, to this help file, to all text in the Planets, Zodiac Signs, Houses, Aspects and Timeline of History sections of AstroScopes. He also owns joint copyright to the natal and daily horoscopes and the pictures which accompany the natal and daily horoscopes.

Leigh A Cooke is a self-taught computer artist and this product represents her professional debut. She currently resides in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She drew half of the pictures which accompany the natal and daily horoscopes.

Jeff Benegar received his B.A. in Environmental Sciences from the University of Virginia in 1987 and currently resides in a log cabin somewhere in Montana. He is a software/environmental engineer for an environmental consulting corporation. He wrote half of the natal and daily horoscopes.

Lifestyle Software Group owns the copyright on the color pictures of the planets, the 12 houses, the 12 zodiac signs, the 5 aspects, the main menu screen and the borders surrounding the horoscopes and data screens, the pictures in the Timeline of Astrological History, and the audio recordings of the horoscopes.

Rocky Tabyanan created the pictures in the Timeline, the main menu screen and the borders surrounding the data and horoscope screens.

Kristie Lowrie drew the 12 planets and 12 zodiac signs pictures.

Molly Walker drew the 12 houses pictures.

Monica TerKeurst narrated the horoscopes.

Richard Kuncicky edited the audio recordings of Monica.

A special thanks to Nathan L Tennies for his help in preparing the maps of the world.

Music Credits (All Music Used Under License)

Copyright 1990-94, Jack Waldenmaier Music Productions

Copyright 1992, Gene Michaels Productions

Copyright 1991, Prosonus