Gauquelin Sectors
Boehrer Graphic Declination Chart
Quad Wheel
Hermetic Minor Progressions
Pop-Up Multi-Wheel Synastry Aspects
Version 6.1 Additions
Full PC Atlas
Astro Locality Maps
Improved Transits and Progressions List
Graphic Aspects Bi-Wheel
Single Planet Aspect Windows for Ascendant, Midheaven, and South Node
Single Planet Aspect Window for Synastry Bi-Wheel
Customize for More than 16 Chart Colors
Customize Color of Zodiac Signs, Aspects, and Center Images
Search for Text in More Chart Data, Notes and Memo Fields
Time/Space Midpoint Combined Relationship Chart
Support for Solar Return Interpretation Reports
Support for Composite/Combined Interpretation Reports
Option for Triangular Aspects Grid at Bottom of Printed Chartwheel Page, with Guides to the Planet and Sign Symbols
User-defined house cusps.
See the release notes for improvements made and bugs fixed during all the minor versions that Version 6 has gone through, starting from February, 2002 to the present.
Version 6.3, released in July, 2004, adds to Edit, Rotate/Rectify Chart, the ability to rotate progressed charts forward and backward in time, including in a triple wheel or quad wheel.
The user will typically create a quad wheel by selecting the desired natal chart, selecting Progress a Chart from the Options menu, and selecting any type of progressed chart other than Secondary (Major) progresssions, such as Solar Arc Directions, Minor Progressions, Tertiary Progressions, Special (User-Defined Rate) Progressions, or Hermetic Minor Progressions. Then one compares the resulting chart first to the natal chart to create the biwheel, and picks the File menu choice Compare to Majors to create the triwheel, and finally to a Fourth Chart which is typically a Current Transits chart (click on the Here & Now button and then on Calculate). The Hermetic Minor Progressions taught by the Brotherhood of Light already specifies details for the transits chart, so this choice of minor progressions accelerates creation of the quad wheel by providing a File menu choice, Compare to Majors and Transits, so that the program jumps directly from a biwheel to a quad wheel.
Edit, Rotate/Rectify Chart, will move the planets of the progressed and transits charts in the quad wheel/triple wheel simultaneously forward or backward in time, either in manually chosen incremental steps or through auto animation. This advanced software tool makes it easier for the astrologer to find the times when the fast moving aspects of the Minor and Transiting planets provide multiple indicators for the influences of the slow-moving aspects of the Major progressed chart.
An outer wheel of the multi-wheel cannot be a saved chart, or Edit, Rotate/Rectify Chart, will not appear as a menu choice, but if one has a biwheel of two saved charts and compares to a third chart which is a Current Transits chart, then one can rotate or auto animate the outer transits chart and see the aspects to the two natal charts.
To support looking at the changing interchart and intrachart aspects, the Display menu adds the following aspect list choices when a quad wheel is on the screen:
The triple wheel offers similar choices, involving Natal, Middle, and Outer.
There is a new choice at Customization, Miscellaneous Preferences:
'Sort Parallels into Aspect Lists', which can be On or Off.
When this is turned On, parallel and contraparallel aspects between the declinations of the planets in the different charts will be calculated and automatically sorted by orb into the single chart Aspects List or into the above multi-wheel aspect lists.
The Single Planet Aspects window, that was earlier modified to cycle showing aspects to planets in the different wheels each time you double-click on the same planet glyph, also now will include declination parallels and contra- parallels if the choice at Customization, Miscellaneous Preferences, is turned on.
The synastry aspects list between two charts will not include declination parallels and contraparallels, but Declination Synastry is an option on the biwheel Display menu.
My work on these new AstrolDeluxe ReportWriter features has been supported by Linden Leisge of the Brotherhood of Light at http://www.lightofegypt.com/.
Here is Linden's description of the advantages to the astrologer of calculating Hermetic Minor Progressions and Rotating the Quad Wheel.
"The Hermetic system of progressions that is available now in the 6.3 version is the Hermetic Professional's best tool for working past and future events. It provides the ability to move all the progressed wheels - Secondary (Major) progressions, Hermetic Minor progressions and Transits to a specific Calendar date. This is done with the Rotate window found in the Edit Menu. When all four wheels are up you can click the Display menu and see on the screen the list of aspects to each set of progressions: Majors to Natal, Majors to Majors, Minors to Majors, Minors to Natal, Transits to Natal, and Transits to Majors, in on-screen lists which can be printed. When the four wheels are on the screen the Rotate window also displays the options of which wheel you wish to progress, Majors, Minors or Transits, to a specific Calendar date. In this way the Professional can look for Constants for Past events or Future events. With the Double Click on the Planets MC and Asc feature, each planet can be checked for all aspects, including Parallels, on a specific date. In this manner the Professional does not have to look through a long list of aspects to sort the specific ones needed to pinpoint the Constants for an event. This works for future events, such as surgical operations, long trips, starting a new enterprise, or any important event or activity. This way the Professional can see the aspects and when the least number of discordant aspects are present, to insure a positive outcome when under discordant aspects. When a new enterprise is started, the aspects can be inspected for the most Harmonious times by using the Double Click on the planets that rule the event or enterprise. The Professional can look for times when there are many Harmonious aspects to the second house for money and the MC for publicity, etc. It will also work for rectification when the time is unsure. All past events can be looked at and the Natal chart can be adjusted to fit the peaks of energy for each Event in the past to confirm the birth time."
Since the quad wheel can have three different sets of changing Midheavens and Ascendants, version 6.3 added to the pop-up Rotate Chart form a list box allowing the user to select which set's positions should appear on the Rotate form. The Midheaven and Ascendant listbox choices that can be selected for the quad wheel say: Outer Chart, Outer Middle Chart, and Inner Middle Chart. These choices allow the astrologer to move the dates and times and see the effect on the desired chart's Midheaven and Ascendant angles without recalculating the whole quad wheel.
Only the transiting Midheaven and Ascendant can be changed directly to the desired angle positions - the Midheaven and Ascendant positions for a progressed chart will be shown in grey and be unchangeable, but they will reflect changes that the user makes above to the Date or Time values.
The Ephemeris Generator at the bottom of the Options menu now allows users to check boxes to include both Longitude and/or Declination positions in the calculated ephemeris tables.
Previously, the default time period for an ephemeris table was the current year. I changed it so that the program now defaults to the current month.
There is now a checkbox at Customization, Aspect Orbs, to Use Sliding Scale Orbs of Declination. The justification for this practice is discussed by Charles Jayne, in a chapter "Orbs of Parallels", from his book Parallels: Their Hidden Meaning, and reprinted in The Best of Charles Jayne, by the American Federation of Astrologers, 1995. The sliding orbs help to solve the same problem that is addressed by turning the declinations into their longitude equivalents and then looking at the resulting aspects, which AstrolDeluxe does at Options, Declination Equivalent Chart. The problem is that when the Sun, for example, moves from 0 Aries where it is at 0 degrees declination to 5 Aries, its declination increases by 2 degrees. But when the Sun is at 0 Cancer and moves to 5 Cancer, its declination decreases by only 5 minutes.
Jayne asserts that astrologers should try to use orbs for parallels that correspond to the amount of zodiacal motion of a normal zodiacal aspect, which means wide orbs of declination near the equator and narrow orbs of declination near the solstice points. Jayne does not address what declination orbs to use for Out of Bounds planets, but it makes sense to use mirror orbs just like we draw the mirror points on the Declination-Longitude Equivalent charts.
If you turn on the checkbox to Use Sliding Scale Orbs of Declination [you must do this separately for each of the categories of aspects, such as Natal, Transits, etc.], then instead of reading from a simple table of orbs as Jayne's book shows, AstrolDeluxe will calculate the orbs from a formula. This formula would set the orb to 1.2 degrees at 0 degrees declination and fall to an orb of about 10 minutes at 23 degrees 26 minutes declination. If you have the Parallel and Contraparallel orbs set to 1.2 degrees, and you turn on the sliding scale, then these are the orbs that you will see. If you increase or decrease the Parallel and Contraparallel orbs above or below 1.2 degrees, then your figure will be used for planets at zero degrees declination and the sliding scale for greater declinations will be relative to that.
When you have a chart or multi-wheel on the screen, the Display menu now gives you the choice Planet Strengths. This will pop-up a small form on the screen with a colorful bar graph of strengths for all the planets that are marked in the Include column at Customization, Planets. The program calculates and displays the relative strengths simply by looking at the exactness of orb of all the aspects in which the planets are involved.
Each strength bar is divided into two differently colored sections, where the strength of the lower section derives from inharmonious aspects and the strength of the upper section derives from conjunctions and harmonious aspects. So, at a glance, the astrologer can see, not only the prominence of the planet, but the discordant or harmonious nature of the energies affecting it.
If you have a biwheel on the screen, the program will calculate the strengths based on the synastry aspects between the two charts, such as between Current Transits and the natal chart or between the charts of two people. If the outer chart of a biwheel is a progressed chart, the strengths will additionally include aspects between the planets of the progressed chart, although since these aspects are fewer in number these aspects naturally contribute less to the total.
If you have a triwheel on the screen, the middle chart is assumed to be a major progressed chart - the strengths include its aspects to itself and to the natal chart. The program then calculates and adds strengths from the planets of the outer wheel to both the natal and major progressed chart. The outer chart could be either transits or minor progressions. In any case, these faster-moving aspects will be weighted at just two thirds the weight of the major progressed chart aspects.
If you have a quadwheel on the screen, the inner middle chart is assumed to be a major progressed chart, the outer middle chart to be a minor progressed chart, and the outer chart to be a transits chart. To the strengths described for the triwheel, the quadwheel adds the aspects from the outer transits chart to the natal and major progressed charts, weighting these quickly-moving aspects at just one third the weight of the slow-moving major progressed chart aspects.
If you have the Planet Strengths window open on the screen when you click on Edit, Rotate Chart, you can watch the strength bars change as you move forward or backward in time, including in Auto animation mode.
I am excited about this new feature. The new KidZone with Sun/Moon interpretations contain pinpoint accurate interpretations of the 144 Sun/Moon combinations together with text that the reportwriter will insert in the body of the Sun/Moon interpretation in order to describe the combination of the Moon with the Ascendant. The combination of the Sun, Moon, and Ascendant gives a very accurate reading.
For cases where the chart is for an unknown birth time, or where the birth was around sunrise which makes the Ascendant the same as the Sun sign, there will be no insertion of text for the Moon/Ascendant combination, but I realized that it would be accurate in those cases to add delineation of the combination of the Moon sign and the Sun sign Decan instead. There will still be nothing inserted if the Sun is in the first decan, since that is the decan of the Sun sign itself, but if the Sun is in the second decan or the third decan, then in those cases the program will grab the Moon/Ascendant interpretation for that combination, automatically change the word 'Ascendant' to 'Decan', and will insert this text where the Moon/Ascendant interpretation would normally be inserted for everyone else.
To give examples of how this works, the first ten degrees of Aries is the Aries Decan, the second ten degrees is the Leo Decan, and the final ten degrees is the Sagittarius Decan. So if the Sun for an unknown birth time chart is between 10 and 20 Aries, the program will insert text for the combination of their Moon sign and the Leo Decan. The first ten degrees of Taurus is the Taurus Decan, the second ten degrees is the Virgo Decan, and the final ten degrees is the Capricorn Decan. If the Sun for a sunrise birthtime chart is between 20 and 30 degrees of Taurus, then the program will insert text for their Moon sign and the Capricorn Decan. I have tested this on a few charts where the birth time is unknown or where the Ascendant is identical to the Sun sign and the interpretations read well and appropriately for the individuals in question. An example is given for Senator and Presidential candidate John Kerry at the report samples page.
As of version 6.3.23, there are natal report commands that the user can add to have reports delineate 45-degree semi-square, 135-degree sesquiquadrate, 30-degree semi-sextile, 72-degree quintile and 144-degree biquintile aspects, even when interpretations for these aspects are missing from the interpretation database. The commands are SubstituteMajorForMinorAspects and SubstituteSextileForQuintileAspects. These commands must precede the DoAspectsStrengthSorted command in the report order section of the Standard template or the DoPointAspects commands in the Intermediate templates.
Version 6.2 adds a table of Gauquelin Sector calculations for the planets of a chart to the Display menu.
Version 6.2 adds three types of Gauquelin Sector searches to the Search Three tab of the Research Charts module, namely 1) By Gauquelin Sector, which looks for charts with a particular planet in a particular one of the 36 Gauquelin sectors, 2) By Plus Zone, which looks for charts with a particular planet in a plus zone, with checkboxes to specify the East, Upper, West, and Lower plus zones, and which finds charts without that planet in a plus zone if none are checked, and 3) By Plus Zones, which finds charts in which the percentage of planets in a plus zone is between a lower and upper percentage boundary, such as the default 66 and 100 percent.
With Kt Boehrer's permission, version 6.2 adds the copyrighted Boehrer Graphic Declination Chart to the Display menu. The eye-shaped ecliptic is shown relative to the equator on a graph of longitude and declination. A plus sign indicates the longitude and declination position of each planet, next to a label of the planet's glyph and its rounded longitude and declination degrees. If the planet is Out-Of-Bounds, meaning past the sun's maximum declination at the solstices, then the planet's active point is calculated and indicated with an x. Click here to see a sample of the on-screen declination graph. Click here or download this Adobe Acrobat PDF file to see a sample of the printed declination graph.
Version 6.2 adds to the Search Three tab of the Research Charts module a search for charts that have a particular planet with Out-Of-Bounds declination.
Version 6.2 adds the quad wheel. It also adds the planet position minutes to the printed page wheel for both the triple wheel and the quad wheel (for the on-screen triple and quad wheels, the program just shows the planet position rounded degrees). The program includes the retrograde flags both printed and on-screen for all four wheels. Click here to see a sample of the on-screen quad wheel. Click here or download this Adobe Acrobat PDF file to see a sample of the printed quad wheel.
Version 6.2 adds the File menu option 'Compare to Majors' after the user has calculated and compared to the natal chart one of the following types of specialized charts: Solar Arc Directions, Minor Progressions, Tertiary Progressions, DR-70 Minor Progressions, or Special Progressions. Major Progressions is another name for Secondary Progressions. The option 'Compare to Majors' will automatically create a triple wheel, with the natal chart at the center, a Secondary Progressed chart (for the same date and place as the specialized chart) in the inner middle of the three wheels, and the specialized chart in the outer wheel. The user then has the File menu option of creating a quad wheel by comparing to a fourth chart, which typically would be a Here & Now or Current Transits chart.
Version 6.2 adds Hermetic Minor Progressions, which are calculated maintaining the same distance between the Minor Progressed Moon and the transiting Sun as exists between the natal Moon and natal Sun, according to the method taught by Elbert Benjamine (pen name C.C. Zain) of the Brotherhood of Light. After calculation of the Hermetic Minor Progressed Chart, and its comparison to the Natal chart, there is a File menu option to automatically throw up the Majors and Transits in a quad wheel. The Transits will be done for the birthplace (in the course of generating the Hermetic Minor Progressions, the program gives the user an opportunity to specify the event time as well as the date).
Version 6.2 enabled the pop-up single planet aspects window for more than just the single wheel and it added the sign placement degree and minute to the title bar of this pop-up window. This was especially necessary for the rounded degree planet positions of the on-screen triple wheel and quad wheel, to give some visibility into the actual minute positions of the planets. Also, if the user double-clicks a second, third, or fourth time on the same planet glyph on the double, triple, or quad wheel, the single planet aspects window will cycle away from showing aspects to that chart's planets to showing the synastry aspects to the planets of each other chart in the multi-wheel, with the title bar indicating to which other chart the synastry aspects are being formed.
The full atlas resources of the ACS PC Atlas, containing coordinates and time zone changes for over 250,000 U.S. and World locations, now come bundled with every copy of AstrolDeluxe ReportWriter, including customers upgrading to version 6 from earlier AstrolDeluxe versions. This is an improvement over earlier versions of AstrolDeluxe, which came bundled with the 9,000 locations of the ACS Mini Atlas. The atlas files are Copyright 1978-2004 by Astro Communications Services, Inc.
Version 6.3, released in July 2004, features all new PC Atlas files from ACS.
Version 6 integrates the PC Atlas with the program's color maps. After looking up one of the 250,000 cities in the PC Atlas, you can click the button Show On Map to see where that city is located either on the U.S. map, the Europe map, or the World map. Also, when you are viewing one of the maps, you can left-click anywhere on the map to bring up a PC Atlas list of the cities, towns, and hospitals that are within a specified radius from where you clicked - and you can repeat the search with different radii.
In support of the full PC Atlas, I reprogrammed all of the atlas utility functions that were lost in the transition from the 16-bit ACS VBX interface control to the 32-bit ACS OCX interface control. These functions now all work better or as well as they did in the 16-bit version 2 of AstrolDeluxe for Windows. The restored functions are on command buttons at the bottom of the PC Atlas lookup form - click to see the new interface (a 9K image). The functions include: Soundex when you are not sure of the spelling of a city; Search for cities in the current state/country that are within X minutes of a specified longitude and latitude; historical Table of time zone changes for the currently selected city; and the ability to add locations to the Personal Atlas (to see its contents, select Personal Atlas among the countries and states in the State listbox, then open the City listbox). While this last function still attaches to the personal location the time zone table from the nearest existing location, it fixes the problem with the 16-bit VBX that was capable of attaching a time zone table from a different territory or county because it solicits and will use territory/county information that you supply.
Given the completeness of the bundled PC Atlas city resources, I replaced links to the old City Lists that come bundled with earlier versions of our astrology software with links to the PC Atlas. Examples of these button links are at: Options, Return Charts; Options, Progress a Chart; Customization, User Information; the pop-up form Transiting Ascendant or Midheaven that one gets when these points are included in a transits list at Options, List Transits and Progressions; and the pop-up form Composite Chart with Derived Ascendant that you get when you have displayed a biwheel and select Display, Composite Chart, Derived Ascendant.
After selecting a saved chart, you can now choose Astro Mapping on the Options menu and choose to have astro-locality lines for the selected chart drawn on a map either of the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Australia with New Zealand, or the World map. These linemaps show where planets come into conjunction with cusps of the four angular houses, in your relocated natal chart, worldwide. Click on this example to see the difference in planet lines for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar between New York City where he was born and Los Angeles where he enjoyed his successful college and professional basketball career. The relocated chart does not replace the natal chart, but it can add to it.
In support of astro mapping, I modernized the program's maps of Europe and the World that had become out of date due to changing political boundaries. I also improved the calibration of longitude and latitude to the maps.
The program gives users a choice of astro maps for the screen or astro maps for printing. The color maps for the screen function well as maps that interact with the mouse to show longitudes, latitudes, time zones, and country names, and on which you can click to bring up lists of cities. While the program does let you print these colorful maps to your printer, it can sometimes be difficult to see the astro map lines against the solid color backgrounds of the different states/countries. Therefore, the program also gives you a choice of monochrome maps with pattern fills for the different states/countries for when you want to print astro maps to your printer.
I added a feature whereby if one right-clicks on a meridian line on the astro map, it will bring up a list of all the PC Atlas locations for that state or country that are on that meridian line. The search can be expanded to cover a wider radius in geographical minutes on the meridian line, and the search results can be printed to the printer.
An issue that you should be aware of is that planets or asteroids with extreme latitude can be rising or setting but not appear conjunct the Ascendant or Descendant. You can see the planets in your chart that have significant ecliptic latitude by calculating your chart and then clicking on Display, Table for Primary Directions. Typically, these planets will be the Moon, Pluto, and Chiron. Be aware of this if you try to relocate your chart to coincide with one of these planet's astro map lines.
The fastest way to see your relocated chart at a point along an astro map line is as follows: click near the Asc./Desc. line for one of these bodies on your screen astro map to have the program find and list the nearby cities (if the computer finishes thinking and doesn't give you any cities for where you clicked, try a slightly different place). Then click on OK to insert the first Search Results city into the ACS Atlas Lookup form, click twice on Transfer to Natal (ignoring the message that you have not clicked on Read Atlas), and then do Calculate to produce your relocated chart for that city.
In order to see that the planet in question really is exactly on the Eastern horizon or the Western horizon, you can click on Display, Prime Vertical Chart, which will show the real conjunction with the chart angle, taking both the ecliptic longitude and latitude of the planet into account.
Minor version 6.1.9, released February 11, 2003, added support for Canada, Mexico, and Australia maps, both for the atlas menu and for the mapping of astrocartography lines from the Options menu.
You can now have the calculated Enter Orb and Leave Orb dates listed on the same row with the Exact Orb date at Options, Transits and Progressions List. Click to see a 22K image of the new collated transits list. To get this display, you must select at least one planet from among the planets in the Use Orb Planets listbox and you must click the checkbox 'List Orb dates collated with Exact dates'. The three columns will only show dates, not times. If you need the exact times of transiting aspects, unclick the collated dates checkbox. To exclude Enter Orb and Leave Orb dates from a transits or progressions list, do not have any planets selected in the Use Orb Planets listbox.
When you print the list with the collated Exact, Enter Orb, and Leave Orb dates, the printed page will be in Landscape mode (except that, if the program determines that your default Windows printer does not support Landscape mode printing, the list will print in Portrait mode without the last column that normally has the natal relationship between the two planets).
When you click on Interpret, Create Report for a collated dates Transits or Progressions list, you will no longer get separate entries in the interpretation report for the dates when an aspect enters orb or leaves orb, and the interpretation headers for the exact dates come out as follows:
Jupiter trine Midheaven: 01/03/2002, Exact
enters orb: 12/18/2001, 2.00 deg. orb - leaves orb: 01/10/2002, 1.00 deg. orb
You have complete control over what orbs are used with the Customize Aspects button and with the Orb Percent Applying and Separating text boxes and scroll bars.
The zodiac-proportional graphic aspects wheel now lets you see the aspect lines between two charts, between two sets of planets. You can even show the graphic aspects when one set of planets is moving in Auto-Rotate mode, such as when you have chosen the outer set to be the Current Transits planets. You can select whether the screen should show 1) Synastry aspect lines between the two charts; 2) aspect lines between the planets of the Inner Chart; and/or 3) aspect lines between the planets of the Outer Chart. You do this by clicking on the same kind of checkboxes that you can still click on and off for Major and Minor Aspects, and Harmonious and Discordant Aspects.
The synastry graphic aspects help you to determine what are the dominant aspect themes or chart patterns in a relationship. You can click to see what aspects dominate each of the separate charts in the relationship and you can click to see if those same or different aspects characterize the interaction between the two charts. You can look at each set of graphic aspects separately or see all three sets simultaneously.
The procedure for watching the transiting aspects come into and out of orb while the planets are moving is as follows:
1) Select the saved natal chart and Calculate or Quick Display the chart.
2) Select File and Compare This Chart to Another.
3) Click on the Here & Now button (revise the date if desired) and click on Calculate.
4) Select Display and Graphic Aspects (this step is unneeded if Graphic Aspects is selected at Customization, Initial Chart Display).
5) Click on Edit and select Rotate/Rectify Chart.
6) Select your desired time increment (if you don't want the default of one day forward at a time). For example, if you want to increment one hour forward at a time, click on the big clock button for the hour and then click on its forward spin control. If you need Help, press the F1 function key.
7) Click on the Auto button.
8) The program will proceed to increment and redraw the positions of the outer set of transiting planets every two or three seconds. You can speed up or slow down the refresh rate by dragging on the Slow/Fast scroll bar that is up on the tool bar. If you have the Synastry checkbox selected, you will see the transiting aspects come into and out of orb.
Until now, it has only been possible to double-click on the glyph for a planet on the graphic wheels in order to pop up the single planet aspects window. A customer made the good suggestion that one be able to double-click on the lines for the Ascendant and Midheaven in order to see all the aspects to those points. The hot spot is located at the outer end of these house cusp lines. Also, while the full aspects list on the Display menu avoids undue repetition by just showing aspects to the Moon's North Node, not to the Moon's South Node, I have made it so that you can now double-click on the glyph for the Moon's South Node and see all of the aspects to it.
In the synastry graphic aspects biwheel, double-clicking on the glyph for one of the inner planets will pop up the single planet aspects window for that planet for the topmost checked set of planets, either for the synastry aspects between the two charts, the inner chart planet aspects, or the outer chart planet aspects.
At Customization, Chart Colors, where you can select the colors for the chart's planet, wheel, and screen background, it is now possible to select from an unlimited color palette. In the past, the planets could only be one of the 16 basic colors, but underneath the boxes for these color selections I have placed a button 'Define Custom Colors > >'. This button takes you to a screen that both has more ready-made color selections and which allows you to make up your desired custom color. You can click on one of the 48 pre-defined color boxes on the left of this screen, or you can click into the big box on the right, where you select the Hue and Saturation depending on where you click, and then click on or drag the pointer for the vertical bar on the far right to select the amount of Luminescence. Either way, the color you choose appears in the medium-size box 'Color|Solid'. When you click on this screen's OK button, your chosen color will appear back at the original screen in the lower-left color box that started out as white. As long as the focus is on this box, you can apply its color to any of the planets or to the background or chart circle by clicking on the box for the desired object.
When you click on Customization, Chart Colors, you will now be given an additional choice of customizing Planet & Chart Colors or Sign & Aspect Colors. The new Customize Sign & Aspect Colors form lets you customize the colors for the zodiac-proportional graphic aspects wheel, both the sign colors in the outer ring, the colors of the aspect lines drawn in the center and, for the synastry graphic aspects biwheel, the colors of the inner ring and of the inner and outer chart planets.
When you click to apply a zodiac sign color, the program will calculate a background color that has the same hue as the selected foreground color, but either lighter or darker luminescence/saturation, to ensure that there is enough contrast to make the sign glyph visible against its background.
The colors that you apply for the different aspects are used as follows: the trine color is used for the conjunction, trine, and sextile aspects; the square color is used for the opposition, square, semi-square, sesquiquadrate, and semi-octile aspects; the inconjunct color is used just for the inconjunct (quincunx) aspect; the quintile color is used for the quintile, biquintile, and semi-sextile aspects; the septile color is used for the septile, biseptile, and triseptile aspects; and the novile color is used for the novile, binovile, quatrinovile, vigintile, decile, tredecile, and quindecile aspects.
Furthermore, if you check the box Apply to Center Images, the colors that you have selected for each of the twelve zodiac signs can be applied to the zodiac sign images that appear at the center of the normal chartwheel. This is an ease-of-use improvement over previous program versions which required that you go into the Windows Paint program if you wanted to change the sign images from the yellow color of the default image files. You can still use Windows Paint to customize the yellow image files that start with WA (such as WA_ARI.BMP), but if you select the checkbox Apply to Center Images, the program will substitute the WB prefix files (such as WB_ARI.BMP) and will colorize these normally black images. The WB prefix files are the ones that the ReportWriter inserts into the black on white text reports - if you have replaced these all-black images with custom images, then I don't guarantee the color results if you select the box Apply to Center Images.
The ability to find charts that contain desired text in the Notes and/or Memo fields of More Chart Data has been added to the search function at Options, Research Charts, Search Two, By Remarks. This lets working astrologers find charts for which they have recorded particular notes. It also lets you search on the valuable biographical and classification items that are imported into the Memo field if you have Lois Rodden's AstroDataBank and export and import records from it.
Version 6.0.14 added a Combined Chart option at the bottom of the biwheel Display menu for calculating a single time/space midpoint chart that combines the two compared charts. The Combined Chart appears to have been independently invented by Philip Schiffmann in Vienna in 1976 and by Ronald C. Davison in London and described in his 1977 book Synastry. It is an actual chart calculated for the midway point in time between the two birthcharts and for the geographical point that is midway between the shortest distance between the two birthplaces. According to the astrologer Gwynne Mayer, the Combined Chart shows the actual here-and-now interaction between the two people, whereas the Composite Chart shows the potential after a commitment has been made. Synastry shows how each will benefit from the relationship in the areas signified by the different planets and houses. The astrologer Bob Marks on his web site claims that if you do a Combined Chart between the Combined Chart and the individual's chart, that the resulting chart describes how the relationship affects or benefits the individual.
The Standard template for doing return reports was developed by astrologer Anthony Louis for his 40-page Journey Returns(tm) solar return report. This is a very well-organized report template. It starts by delineating the house placement and aspects to the sun in the solar return report. It then focuses on the placement, ruler, and aspects to the solar return Ascendant and planets in the First House. It does the same for the Midheaven and Tenth House. The solar return report then delineates the placements and aspects for the Moon through Pluto. If one of these aspects would perfect within a day after the solar return, the report writer will calculate the corresponding date during the year (using the traditional formula that one day is the image of one year of life) and indicate that date in the delineation heading. The report delineates the sign and house placements of the Part of Fortune in the return chart. The report then delineates any conjunctions between the return chart planets and the return and natal house cusps. The last step is to delineate natal planets conjunct return chart house cusps.
The Intermediate template adds to the end of the solar return report a 15 section outline of Alexandre Volguine's method for interpreting solar returns. Understanding this method helps to synthesize all the sections in the report, but the technical language in the description of the method is best suited for a client who is astrologically well informed.
The Advanced template adds calculation of 1) all the dates and times during the year when the transiting Sun forms conjunctions, oppositions, squares, trines, and sextiles to points in the Solar Return chart, and 2) all the dates and times during the year when the progressed SR Ascendant and progressed SR Midheaven form conjunctions, oppositions, or squares to points in the Solar Return chart and the Natal chart. These transits of the Sun to the Solar Return chart and progressions of the Solar Return angles are symbolic "triggers" that set off the action promised in the earlier sections of the report. The dates print without interpretations at this time because we are concerned that the interpretations would be too generic and not specific. The specificity comes in looking at how the triggered planet is configured in the natal and in the SR charts, especially looking for multiple hits or patterns around the same date. This is a job that is best performed by an experienced astrologer.
If you do not want an item in the solar return report, such as the Part of Fortune interpretations, it is simple to select the item in the Report Order listbox and click it away with the left arrow button. You can always restore deleted items by clicking on the Default List button.
The Standard template for doing composite reports is identical to the Standard natal template. The program will use this template whenever you have either a composite chart or a combined chart displayed at the Chart Information Screen. I can't say too much about this report yet because we are still writing the interpretations.
The File menu selection Print with Grids will be enabled when you have a regular chartwheel on the screen. This selection will cause the wheel to print with a triangular aspects grid and grids with the sign and planet glyph names at the bottom of the printed chart page.
The File menu selection Save Page as Image File with Grids will be enabled when you have a regular chartwheel on the screen. This selection will cause the program to print to an image file such as GIF, PNG, or JPG a printed-page style wheel with a triangular aspects grid at the bottom, together with grids with the sign and planet glyph names. The wheel image will be in color if you have color printing turned on at Customization, Chart Colors, Planet & Chart Colors. The wheel image will include the Courtesy Block in the upper right corner if you have that turned on at Customization, Print Courtesy.
The User Cusp house system is a user-defined house system which puts whatever decimal degree you specify on the ascendant and uses equal houses for the remaining houses. This is similar to the Aries house system, except that instead of starting at 0 degrees, the houses can start at any degree. There is a text box in which you can enter any number from 0 to 360. A customer requested this house system, saying that "it would help immensely in doing research."
