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** VERSION 7.20 **
Release notes for Astrolog version 7.20 (April 2021):
Happy New Moon everyone! :) This file describes the freeware astrology software program Astrolog version 7.20 and the additions and fixes made to it, over the previous version 7.10 which was released six months ago in October 2020. The main things in this update are improved support for Dwarf planets and planetary moons, detailed world maps and backgrounds, and 3D midpoints.
Here are new additions to version 7.20 that weren't in previous versions:
1. Dwarf planets: Astrolog supports nine new objects related to Dwarf planets. These include the “Seven Dwarfs”, or the seven largest confirmed or possible Dwarf planets located beyond Pluto, which in decreasing size order are: Eris, Haumea, Makemake, Gonggong, Quaoar, Sedna, and Orcus. Also included are asteroid “10 Hygiea” (which might also be a Dwarf planet), and the centaur “5145 Pholus”. The new -u0 command switch will enable (or disable) these nine objects. In the Windows version, these nine objects have been added to the “Setting / Restrictions” and the “Setting / More Object Settings” dialogs, and can be toggled on/off with the new “Setting / Include Dwarfs” menu command or the “y” hotkey. These are full objects like any other, in which graphic glyphs and simple interpretations are available too. Astrolog has been able to display these minor objects since version 6.30, however they required manual downloads and then configuring with the -Yeb and other command switches. The ephemeris files for these bodies now come with all downloads of Astrolog, so one can just point and click to show them. For more about the “Seven Dwarfs” in astrology and their significance, see: http://www.astrolog.org/astrolog/astdwarf.htm
2. Planetary moon objects: Astrolog supports 32 new objects related to moons of other planets. These include 27 moons, and five points for the actual center of body (COB) of Jupiter through Pluto (as opposed to the planetary system barycenters which the standard planet objects cover). Counting the nine Dwarf planet objects, Astrolog offers 41 new objects in this version, and 131 objects total. The new -u8 switch will enable (or disable) the 27 moon objects, and the new -ub switch will enable the five center of body objects. These are full objects like any other, and simple interpretations are available too. Note the similarity in names of Saturn’s moon “Titan” with Uranus’ moon “Titania”, which means that when specifying objects by name on the command line that “Titan” or a substring of it will match Saturn’s Titan, and at least the six characters “Titani” are needed to match Titania. Astrolog has been able to display planetary moons since version 7.10, however they required manual configuring with the -Yem and other switches. Planetary moon ephemeris files still need to be downloaded separately from http://www.astrolog.org/ftp/ephem/moons/, although the new object slots make them easy to work with now. For more about planetary moons in astrology, see: http://www.astrolog.org/astrolog/astmoon.htm
In the Windows version, the new “Setting / Planetary Moons” submenu has several new commands for working with planetary moons. The “Include Moons” and “Include Body Centers” will toggle the status of those objects (same as -u8 and -ub switches). The new “Moon Restrictions” command (similar to the existing “Restrictions” and “Star Restrictions” commands on the Setting menu) will bring up a new dialog allowing one to individually restrict or include each of the moons related objects. The dialog has buttons to toggle the status of each planet’s moons separately, so it’s easy to focus on (for example) just Saturn’s moons if wanted.
Also in the Windows version, the new “Moon Object Settings” command (similar to the existing “Object Settings” and “More Object Settings” commands on the Setting menu) will bring up a new dialog allowing one to individually set the maximum orb, orb addition offset, influence power number, and color of each moon object. The default for planetary moons is a two degree orb, the same as fixed stars. Note the default virtual color “Planet”, which means to use the same color as the planet the moon orbits, but darkened slightly (e.g. use maroon for the moon’s color, if the planet the moon orbits is set to be red). This dialog also has a checkbox “Make Moons Orbit Current Central Object” which accesses the -Ym switch setting.
3. Planetary moons chart: Astrolog has a new chart which will do a planetary moons report. This is the first time something like this has become available to astrologers! :) To display it, use the new -8 command switch, or the “Setting / Planetary Moons / Moons Chart” in the Windows version. This chart will show positions and aspects of all unrestricted planetary moons (or all moons if they’re all restricted). If a planetary center of body object is unrestricted, then it will be used as the position of the planet (otherwise the standard barycenter planet object will be used). This chart is in seven parts:
A: Moon positions: The position of each unrestricted moon is displayed in standard geocentric coordinates (or whatever the current central body is), as well as in planet-centric coordinates relative to the planet the moon orbits. Note standard geocentric coordinates will have moons very close together, while the planet-centered positions can be evenly distributed around the zodiac. All planet-centered positions will be displayed in coordinates relative to Earth’s ecliptic (similar to how heliocentric charts are done). In addition, each moon will show its orientation relative to its planet and relative to Earth, in two ways: (1) Leading, ranging from +100% if the moon is ahead of the planet in its orbit (both viewed from Earth and viewed from the Sun), to -100% if the moon is trailing the planet. (2) Closeness, ranging from +100% if the moon is closer to or between the planet and the viewer (both viewed from Earth and viewed from the Sun), to -100% if the moon is behind the planet or farther away from the viewer. Because “Lead” and “Close” measure two things perpendicular to each other, together they add up to 100%. Values greater than 75% or less than -75% indicate the moon is prominent, and will be highlighted in color, using the colors of the corresponding angles. In interpretation, a “Leading” moon is somewhat similar to an object on the Ascendant, and is a guiding influence that the planet being orbited is heading towards. A “Following” moon is somewhat similar to an object on the Descendant, and is a part of the planet being moved away from or that one has much experience with. A “Close” moon is somewhat similar to an object on the Midheaven, and is intense and obvious in its effect on the planet. A “Distant” moon is somewhat similar to an object on the Nadir, and is subtle and internal in its effect.
B: Planet/moon overlaps: This section displays how close moons are to being conjunct with the planet they orbit, as viewed from Earth (or whatever the current central body is). Because moons are very close to their planet when viewed from other planets, these conjunctions are only displayed if they’re precise, i.e. if moon’s disk overlaps (or almost overlaps) the planet disk’s position in longitude. For this section, the moon and planet must be within a number of moon disk widths equal to the normal orb allowed in degrees. If the “print nearest second” setting is on, then the alignment percentage will be displayed (which is positive ranging from 0% to 100% depending on the horizontal alignment, or negative depending on how many moon disk widths the moon and planet are apart horizontally). If the moon overlaps the planet disk in latitude too, then there’s a transit or occultation taking place between them, which will also be indicated. Eclipses between a moon and its planet are one of the strongest influences in interpretation. Interpretation text for these aspects will be included if interpretations (-I switch) are turned on.
C: Moon/moon overlaps: This section displays how close different moons orbiting the same planet are to being conjunct with each other, as viewed from Earth. Like section B, these conjunctions are only displayed if they’re precise, i.e. if the moons’ disks overlap each other in longitude, or almost overlap within a number of moon disk widths of each other. Eclipses visible from Earth will also be indicated, which means the two moons’ disks are aligned in vertical latitude too and actually overlap.
D: Moon/planet aspects (planet-centered): This section displays aspects between moons and other planets, viewed from the planet the moon orbits. If a moon is Conjunct or Opposite the Sun, then it will be a New Moon or Full Moon as seen from that planet. In such a case, the moon will also be planet-centric “Close” +/- 100% in section A. Similarly, a half moon (moon Square Sun) will happen exactly when the moon is leading or trailing the planet in its orbit, and the moon will also be planet-centric “Lead” +/- 100% in section A. An aspect of moon Conjunct or Opposite Earth will happen when the moon is closest to or most distant from Earth, which means the moon will be also geocentric “Close” +/- 100% in section A. To avoid too much data, this section will only show Conjunction aspects by default (and Squares and Oppositions to the Sun to catch moon phases), although if the “graphs include all planets” setting in the Transits dialog is on (-B0 switch) then all unrestricted aspects will be included.
E: Moon/moon aspects (same planet-centered): This section shows aspects between moons orbiting the same planet, viewed relative to the planet they orbit. It’s possible for conjunctions to be eclipses or disk overlaps between the two moons, and if so they’ll be indicated.
F: Moon/moon conjunctions (other planet-centered): This is identical to section E, but shows conjunctions between moons orbiting different planets. In other words, this treats it as if the two moons were orbiting the same planet, and checks for aspects relative to the virtual shared center point. Eclipses in this section are still possible, however they will be “virtual eclipses”, which means they would only be visible if the moons actually did orbit the same body.
G: Moon/planet conjunctions (overlayed): This section shows aspects between planet-centered moons and geocentric planets. In other words, similar to section F this treats it as if the moon were orbiting Earth instead, and checks for aspects relative to the virtual shared center point. As with sections D and F, this will only show Conjunctions by default. Moon phases and eclipses in this section will be “virtual”, which means they would only be apparent if the moons actually did orbit Earth.
4. Object customization: In the Windows version, the new “Object Customization” command on the “Setting / Planetary Moons” submenu will bring up a dialog allowing one to customize 50 different objects. This includes all objects in the Uranians, Dwarfs, and planetary moons object categories. For each object slot, one can rename it, and change its definition. Definitions are a number or an Astrolog object name, with optional prefix and/or suffix letters. For numbers, no prefix means a minor planet or asteroid with its own ephemeris file (e.g. “5” for asteroid “5 Astraea”), the prefix “h” means a hypothetical planet from seorbel.txt (e.g. “h9” for Isis-Transpluto), and the prefix “m” means a planetary moon (e.g. “m501” for Jupiter’s moon Io). If a suffix is present, the characters “n”, “s”, “p”, and “a” will (instead of the object’s position) compute the position of its north node, south node, perihelion point, or aphelion point along its orbit. Also, the suffix characters “H”, “S”, “B”, “N”, “T”, and “V” will toggle the heliocentric setting (-h switch), sidereal zodiac setting (-s switch), barycenter setting (-Yh switch), true node setting (-Yn switch), true positions setting (-YT switch), and topocentric positions setting (-YV switch) for just this object (which is useful if you want to for example include heliocentric nodes in a geocentric chart).
The “Lookup Names” button in this dialog will take any name slots that are blank, and fill them out with a name based on the slot’s definition. This button is useful if you want to verify that (for example) minor planet #1234 in Swiss Ephemeris file se01234s.se1 is actually going to compute the asteroid “Elyna” and not some other body. This is an improvement over previous versions of the program, which could only customize via command line switches, and could only customize the nine object slots in the Uranians category.
5. Chart backgrounds: Astrolog can display pictures as a background for its charts. The new -XI switch will load the specified Windows bitmap file (“.bmp” extension) and display it behind every graphics or text chart. In the Windows version, the new “File / Open Bitmap / Open Background” command will do the same. The bitmap contents will take the place of the background color (which is usually black or white). An easy way to get pictures into the Windows version of Astrolog is from your Web browser right click on any picture and select “Copy image” or equivalent, and then do “Edit / Paste” in Astrolog.
Background settings: The new -XI0 switch allows one to set the transparency and positioning of the background image, and takes two parameters to cover both settings. The transparency parameter runs from 0 to 100, in which 0 means fully transparent and the background image is invisible, and 100 means fully opaque and the background color doesn’t exist. The default is 25, which ensures a black background will still be sufficiently dark and a white background sufficiently light to not make viewing the chart itself difficult. In the Windows version, the Graphics Setting dialog has a new “Transparency Percentage of Background” field which controls this. The second parameter for positioning may be 0, which means the background image is stretched to cover the chart dimensions, or 1 or -1 which means the aspect ratio of the original bitmap is preserved. 1 means the chart will always be covered and the left/right or top/bottom edges of the background will be cropped if the ratios don’t match (which is the default), and -1 means all of the background will be displayed and the left/right or top/bottom edges of the chart will remain the background color if the ratios don’t match.
6. Detailed world maps: Astrolog’s graphical world map displays (which includes its astro-graph and nearest cities local space charts) will now show a detailed picture of the world, instead of simple line drawings along the coastlines that the program has done since version 2.00 released in 1991. For example, the globe display (-XG switch) will display a “spherical bitmap”, rotated and tilted appropriately. Also, in the globe displays (-XG & -XP switches) if the “world map in Mollewide projection setting” is on, then the night half of the world will be shaded darker. In the Windows version, the new “Graphics / Map Effects / Use Detailed World Map” command will toggle between the two options. The world map bitmap exists in the file “earth.bmp” in the Astrolog install directory. You can edit or replace that file, however for accurate results this file needs to be an equirectangular projection of the world, in which the left and right edges are at 180 degrees W/E. The new -XIW switch will load the specified Windows bitmap file and use it for the world map bitmap instead. In the Windows version, the new “File / Open Bitmap / Open World Map” command will do the same. The default earth.bmp uses the NASA Visible Earth Blue Marble image https://visibleearth.nasa.gov/images/74218/december-blue-marble-next-generation. More detailed or alternate world maps that can be used with the -XIW switch, or replace the default earth.bmp, are available at: http://www.astrolog.org/ftp/map
7. 24 bit bitmaps: Astrolog now supports 24 bit color Windows bitmaps, which can display 16 million colors per pixel (instead of just a 16 color palette as before). Saving a file in Windows bitmap format, or copying such a bitmap to the clipboard will generate the more detailed bitmap. The new -Xbw switch indicates the default bitmap format is 24 bit bitmaps, while the -Xbb switch will save smaller 16 color palette bitmaps. When the palette is 16 colors, chart backgrounds and detailed world maps will be disabled. In the Windows version, the new “Graphics / Map Effects / Use Detailed World Map” command will toggle between the two options.
8. AAF file format: Astrolog supports the Astrological Exchange Format for storing chart information (abbreviated AAF, which stands for “Astrologisches Austauschformat” in German). This is a sharable text format designed to allow different astrology programs (which usually have their own private file formats) to read each others’ data. The new -oa switch will save the current chart information to this format, and in the Windows version the new “File / Save Chart AAF” command will save it. The -i command switch and the “File / Open Chart” command in the Windows version will recognize this format too. (If a file starts with the “#” character then it’s considered an AAF file, otherwise it’s one of Astrolog’s standard script files.) Note that you can load an Astrolog chart info file (e.g. “mychart.as”), save it as AAF, load that AAF file, resave as “mychart2.as”, and get the original file back. The http://www.astro.com site can show saved charts in AAF format, if you click the “aaf” button in the “Stored Astro Data” section of your profile. Once there, you can simply select the two lines of AAF text for a chart, copy it to the clipboard, and do “Edit / Paste” in Astrolog as a quick way to display your Astro.com profile charts in Astrolog.
9. Clipboard paste: In the Windows version, the new “Edit / Paste” command will load whatever’s on the Windows clipboard into Astrolog. If there’s text on the clipboard, then Astrolog will try to parse it as a command line or a “.as” extension script file. If the text starts with “#” then Astrolog will consider it to be AAF file content. If there’s a bitmap on the clipboard, Astrolog will display it as the chart background. For example, in your Web browser you can simply right click on any picture and select “Copy image” or equivalent, and then do Paste in Astrolog to display it behind the chart.
10. Latitude and distance events: The transit to transit times chart (-d switch) can now also detect times of when a planet’s latitude reaches highest or lowest, and when a planet reaches most or least distance from the central object (i.e. reaches apoapsis or periapsis points). Combined with the existing ability to detect when a planet goes retrograde or direct, this chart has events for all axes in 3D spherical coordinates (horizontal axis = zodiac position changing retrograde or direct, vertical axis = latitude reaching high or low point, and distance axis = planet reaching apoapsis or periapsis). The new -YR1 switch allows restricting whether these latitude or distance events are included in the chart (which they are by default, since these events are less commonly used). It takes two parameter flags, with the first setting controlling latitude events, and the second distance events.
11. Nakshatras: Astrolog can display zodiac positions in Vedic Nakshatra format, which divides the zodiac into 27 equal sized divisions of 13:20 degrees each (and each Nakshatra is in turn divided into four quadrants or Padas). This is treated as a display format, similar to zodiac position, hours/minutes, and number from 0-360 already supported. The new -sn switch will display zodiac longitudes as Nakshatras, and in the Windows version the new “Display Format / 27 Nakshatras” option in the Display Settings dialog will do the same. For example, 0Lib00 will be displayed as “14Chit3”, which means the 14th Nakshatra (named “Chitra”) and the 3rd Pada within it. If the “print nearest second” setting is on, then the position will be displayed with more detail: The Pada will indicate the fractional amount through it (e.g. half way through Pada #1 will be displayed as “1.5”) and the corresponding Navamsa sign to that Pada will be displayed (i.e. the sign abbreviation appended to the position will be the same as the zodiac position as a whole if the -9 switch Navamsa mode were turned on). For example, 0Tau00:00 would be displayed at “3Krit2.0Cp”, which means the 3rd Nakshatra (named “Krittika”) and the start of the 2nd Pada within it (which corresponds to Capricorn in Navamsa).
12. Global eclipses: Astrolog can flag Conjunctions as solar eclipses in certain charts. However, eclipses are normally only displayed as such if they’re visible from the location on Earth at the exact time in question, which doesn’t help with determining whether a particular New Moon is an eclipse. If the -Yu switch is invoked as -Yu0 instead, then Conjunctions will be displayed as eclipses if they’re visible from anywhere on Earth, and the type of eclipse (e.g. partial vs. total) and its percentage coverage will be displayed as if one were optimally positioned on Earth where the eclipse is at its maximum.
13. JPL ephemeris: The only thing more accurate than the Swiss Ephemeris (and even then only slightly) is the JPL ephemeris itself, of which the Swiss Ephemeris is a compressed version. Astrolog supports doing calculations using the JPL ephemeris, with the new -bj command switch, or in the Windows version by selecting the “JPL Ephemeris” option in the “Calculation Method” dropdown of Calculation Settings. Using this option requires the large 2.7 gigabyte file de431.eph to be downloaded from ftp://www.astro.com/pub/jplfiles and placed in a directory where Astrolog can find it. (Note some browsers like Chrome have FTP disabled by default.)
14. City lookup: The new -zL switch will set the chart longitude and latitude based on the specified city’s coordinates in Astrolog’s atlas. It’s like the existing -zN switch, although that switch also sets the time zone and Daylight fields of the chart.
15. Custom Delta-T: Astrolog takes into account Delta-T when processing and displaying times, which means leap seconds which are periodically inserted within certain years due to the very gradual slowing of Earth’s rotation. The new -Yz0 switch allows one to manually specify the Delta-T offset to use, in number of seconds, which may be useful for specialized scenarios like comparing calculations between sources using different Delta-T models.
16. Custom planet size: The new -YS switch will set the diameter of the specified object to the given number of kilometers (or miles if given with the suffix “mi”). This is relevant for eclipse detection and charts which draw planet disks, especially if an object slot is customized to be a different body. For example, if you’ve ever wanted to know what the Moon would look like in our sky if it were as big as Jupiter, do “-YS Moo 142984”. The result will be that the “Moon” now spans 22 degrees and is nearly 50 times wider!
17. Star colors: Fixed star objects can have their color customized. The -YkO switch will now set the color to use for all stars if you change the color of the first star object. If set to the new virtual color “star”, then that means the default behavior of using orange for stars brighter than magnitude 1.0, and dark red for dimmer stars. In the Windows version, the More Object Settings dialog has a new dropdown alongside “All Stars”, which allows one to set the color to use for them, which by default is set to the virtual color "Star".
18. Alternate color palette: In Astrolog the “Reverse Background” command or -Xr switch may be used to draw the chart on a white background. The problem is that normally won’t look good, because colors like yellow, green, and cyan which look great on black become harder to see on white. Astrolog now has an alternate color palette used for reverse background mode, in which colors like yellow will be darker. The new -YXK0 switch (which is on by default) controls whether this alternate color palette is used. Note that manually changing palette colors with the -YXK switch will cause the user specified RGB colors to always be used, regardless of this setting or the background color.
19. Global Triangles network: The new -YXW switch will draw a grid of triangles around the world in the globe and map displays, overlaying any astro-graph lines or other things also on the world. If the one argument that this switch takes is 0, then the grid is turned off. If the argument is positive, then a grid of triangles is drawn based on an icosahedron, with each triangle subdivided into smaller triangles a number of times equal to the argument. If the argument is negative, then a grid of squares is drawn based on a cube, with each square subdivided into smaller squares a number of times equal to the magnitude of the argument.
20. Constellation lines addition: The new -YXU0 switch is like the existing -YXU, except it will append the lines to the existing set, instead of replacing them. For example, that allows for an easy way to define all constellations (with each constellation defined separately) without having to compose one giant command switch for everything all at once. Also, sequences of star indexes can be specified with the underscore character between them “_” for easy definition of lines of stars. For example, another way to define the Big Dipper is “-YXU Alkaid,Mizar,Alioth,Megrez,Phecda,Merak,Dubhe 0_1_2_3_4_5_6”
21. Chart slot setting: The new -q2 switch is like -q, except instead of directly setting the chart information in the active chart, it will directly set the information in chart slot #2. This may be invoked as -q1 through -q4 to set the specified slots, and all the other chart indicators in the -i switch may be used with -q too.
22. New house systems: Astrolog supports six new theoretical equal house systems. They don’t appear as Windows menu options, but can be selected by the command line with the -c switch. Counting these, Astrolog now supports 33 house systems total.
East Point Equal houses (-c 27): Standard Equal houses places the 1st house at the Ascendant. East Point based Equal houses places the 1st house at the East Point.
East Point Whole houses (-c 28): Standard Whole houses places the 1st house at the start of the sign of the Ascendant. East Point based Whole houses places the 1st house at the start of the sign of the East Point.
East Point Vedic houses (-c 29): Standard Vedic houses places the Ascendant in the middle of the 1st house. East Point based Vedic houses places the East Point in the middle of the 1st house.
Antivertex Equal houses (-c 30): Standard Equal houses places the 1st house at the Ascendant. Antivertex based Equal houses places the 1st house at the point of the Antivertex (i.e. 180 degrees opposite the Vertex).
Antivertex Whole houses (-c 31): Standard Whole houses places the 1st house at the start of the sign of the Ascendant. Antivertex based Whole houses places the 1st house at the start of the sign of the Antivertex (and the 7th house at the start of the sign of the Vertex).
Antivertex Vedic houses (-c 32): Standard Vedic houses places the Ascendant in the middle of the 1st house. Antivertex based Vedic houses places the Antivertex in the middle of the 1st house (and the Vertex in the middle of the 7th house).
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Here's a summary of the 22 new command switches in Astrolog 7.20 that weren't in previous versions:
-8: Display planetary moons chart showing placements and aspects.
-zL <city>: Lookup city in atlas and set location in current chart.
-oa <file>: Write parameters of current chart to AAF format file.
-u0: Include Dwarf planets and related bodies in charts.
-u8: Include planetary moon bodies in charts.
-ub: Include planetary center of body (COB) objects in charts.
-bj: Use more accurate JPL ephemeris file instead of Swiss Ephemeris.
-XI <file>: Display bitmap as background behind graphics charts.
-XI0 <trans> <pos>: Set transparency and positioning of background.
-XIW <file>: Replace world map bitmap used for world map charts.
-Yu0: Like -Yu but detect maximum eclipse anywhere on Earth.
-Yz0 <sec>: Set seconds of Delta-T to always use for charts.
-YS <obj> <size>: Set diameter of object to be specified size.
-YXK0: Use alternate color palette for white background mode.
-YXU0 <starlist> <linklist>: Append instead of replace lines.
-YXW <num>: Draw triangles or cubes grid over world maps.
-~j0 <string>: Set adjustment for sign influence.
-~dv <string>: Set adjustment for void of course determinations.
-~F[O,C,A] <string>: Set adjustment for sign/object/house/aspect fonts.
-~U <string>: Set filter for extra stars.
-~U0 <string>: Set filter for extra asteroids.
Here's a summary of the 12 new menu commands in the Windows version of Astrolog 7.20 that weren't in previous versions:
File / Save Chart AAF...
File / Open Bitmap / Open Background...
File / Open Bitmap / Open World Map...
Edit / Paste
Setting / Planetary Moons / Moons Chart
Setting / Planetary Moons / Moon Restrictions...
Setting / Planetary Moons / Moon Object Settings...
Setting / Planetary Moons / Include Moons
Setting / Planetary Moons / Include Body Centers
Setting / Planetary Moons / Object Customization...
Setting / Include Dwarfs
Graphics / Map Effects / Use Detailed World Map
A list of improvements to existing features in Astrolog 7.20, such as new things you can now do with old features that you couldn’t do before, or ways that existing features work better than before:
1. Vertical midpoints: Astrolog’s midpoint list chart (-m switch) will include the midpoints of latitudes as well, if the -gp switch setting is on. For example, the vertical midpoint of a planet at +6 degrees ecliptic latitude and a planet at -1 ecliptic latitude is +2:30 latitude.
2. 3D midpoints: Astrolog’s midpoint list chart (-m switch) and aspect/midpoint grid chart (-g switch) will do “3D midpoints” based on the midpoint along the great circle between the two points on the celestial sphere, if the 3D houses setting (-c3 switch) is on. Classic midpoints only take the midpoint of zodiac position longitudes and completely ignore latitude (or look at latitude separately). For example, the classic midpoint of a planet at 0Ari and 0 latitude, and another planet at 0Leo and +89 latitude, will just be 0Gem, however the 3D midpoint will be close to 0Ari and +45 latitude. If 3D midpoints are active, then one probably wants to turn on vertical midpoints too, in order to also see the vertical latitude component of the 3D midpoint.
Also, time space midpoint charts (-rm switch) normally take the midpoint of longitudes and the midpoint of latitudes separately to determine the location of the resulting chart. If the 3D houses setting is on, then the midpoint location will instead be the true midpoint along the great circle between the two points on the globe.
3. Additional fonts: Astrolog supports seven different fonts for display of signs, houses, planets, and aspects. They are Astrolog’s default internal vector drawing, the Wingdings font from Windows (signs only), the Astro font by Kenneth Hirst, the EnigmaAstrology font by Jan Kampherbeek, generic high Unicode characters, the HamburgSymbols font by cat3, and the Astronomicon font by Roberto Corona. Support for the Hamburg and Astronomicon fonts is new to this version. (The Astronomicon font at http://astronomicon.co/en/astronomicon-fonts/ is nice because it’s the first font which has glyphs for all of Astrolog’s standard objects and aspects, including alternate versions.) The -YXf switch takes a four digit number, which indicates which font to use for each area, in which 0=Astrolog, 1=Wingdings, 2=Astro, 3=Enigma, 4=Unicode, 5=Hamburg, 6=Astronomicon. In the Windows version, the Graphics Settings dialog has the Hamburg and Astronomicon fonts added to the new font selection dropdowns.
4. Astrocartography interpretations: Interpretations of each latitude crossing will now be inserted in the text mode astro-graph chart, if interpretations are turned on (-L0 -I switches).
5. 3D house interpretations: Interpretations of 3D house change events will now be displayed within the transit to natal events chart, when such events are included and when interpretations are turned on (-t -c3 -I switches).
6. Planetary moon eclipses: Astrolog’s eclipse detection will now display lunar eclipses involving other planets and their moons, if the other planet is the central object. For example, a lunar eclipse of Io behind Jupiter’s shadow is interesting, because fast moving Io passes through penumbral and partial phases in under five minutes, but spends over two hours in totality of Jupiter’s large shadow. Lunar eclipses of moons of other planets can also be seen in Astrolog’s telescope chart (-XZ switch) however that requires the moon to be the object the telescope is focused upon. (That’s because the Earth’s or the other planet’s shadows are drawn as circles at the moon’s distance, which requires knowing which moon is being considered.)
7. Planetary moon diameters: Planetary moon objects have their own diameters and disk sizes, and these disks can now be seen in the graphic telescope chart (-XZ switch). They’re also visible in the solar system orbit chart, although it requires zooming in quite a bit for their disks to be more than one pixel wide. They’re visible in the local horizon charts too, although since those charts show the whole sky, object disks won’t become apparent unless the central object is set to something (such as a planetary moon) located near a large body. Since 1993, Astrolog’s icon has been two moons of different sizes orbiting a planet, and it can finally display images similar to its icon in the program itself. :) For an example of Jupiter and its different sized large Galilean moons, see: http://www.astrolog.org/astrolog/screen/eclipsej.gif
8. Zoomed label detail: The telescope and local space charts will display axes on the edges of the chart to the nearest arc minute (and no longer only to the degree), if the chart is zoomed in enough.
9. Saturn’s rings: The telescope chart (-XZ switch) will now display rings around Saturn, tilted and rotated appropriately. Ellipses will be drawn at the most visible boundaries of Saturn’s rings, specifically at the outer limit of Saturn’s “A” ring and the inner limit of Saturn’s “B” ring. Note that Saturn’s axis is currently hardcoded, however its precession is a very slow 1.83 million year cycle, so it stays reasonably accurate. For example, Astrolog correctly shows the nearest dates when Earth crosses Saturn’s ring plane (Sep 4, 2009 and March 23, 2025). Astrolog’s icon has been a ringed planet since 1993, and it can finally display images similar to its icon within the program itself. :) For an example of Saturn and its rings viewed from Saturn’s moon Iapetus, see: http://www.astrolog.org/astrolog/screen/moonssat.gif
10. Telescope mouse drag: When the telescope and local space charts are zoomed in, right clicking and dragging with the mouse will move the view by a proportionally slower rate. This is much better than before, in which clicking and dragging would always move at the same rate, causing everything to quickly fly off the screen at high zoom values.
11. Telescope eclipse improvement: The telescope chart (-XZ switch) will always draw the umbra of Earth’s shadow in front of the Moon, and the penumbra of Earth behind the Moon. This makes lunar eclipses look more realistic, in that a bite will appear out of the Moon when it enters the umbra. For an example of this in a Total Lunar Eclipse, see: http://www.astrolog.org/astrolog/screen/eclipsel.gif
12. Telescope mirror option: When the telescope chart (-XZ switch) is aligned with Earth’s ecliptic (-XL switch) zodiac positions are displayed increasing from left to right, as might be expected. However, when looking up at the ecliptic in the sky (at least in the Northern hemisphere) zodiac positions increase from right to left, so the telescope shows a mirror image of what’s actually in the sky. To counter this, if the harmonic chart setting is negative (i.e. “-x -1”) then the chart will be flipped horizontally.
13. Graphic transit years: The graphic transit charts (-B/-V switches) used to always cover either one year or five years, with nothing in between. They will now respect the “Years to Span” value in Transit Settings, and cover spans up to 20 years. Five years is still the default if one selects “Range of Years” without specifying a number. When doing this on the command line, note that the -BY/-VY switches don’t take a year parameter (because five years is still the default) so the number of years needs to be set with a different switch like -EY (e.g. “-EY 10 _E” to set the number of years, but not also turn on the -E chart).
14. Biorhythm average: The graphic biorhythm chart (-rb -X switches) will include a fourth line for the average of the Physical, Emotional, and Intellectual lines, if the “Modify Display” setting (-Xi switch) is on. Right clicking on the biorhythm window will bring up a new context menu allowing one to select this option.
15. Bi-wheel improvement: A circle (colored green by default) will be drawn between the two chart rings in the bi-wheel chart. This is similar to how green circles are already drawn between the rings of tri-wheels and quad-wheels.
16. Scrolling improvement: In the Windows version, if while viewing a text mode chart, one scrolls to the right beyond all text, then the program will automatically scroll to the left until at least some columns are visible again. This is similar to the existing functionality of how if one scrolls down below all text, then the program will automatically scroll up until some rows are visible again.
17. Customization improvement: When redefining an object slot with the -Ye switch, Astrolog will now automatically query the name of that object and change the name of the object slot too, and also turn off the object’s glyph so it’s displayed as an abbreviation of its new name. Before, renaming the object and redefining or turning off its glyph had to be done separately.
18. Swiss Ephemeris version: Astrolog now uses Swiss Ephemeris version 2.10, which includes among other things a fix to slightly improve the accuracy of the Moon’s latitude.
19. TZ database updated: Astrolog’s time zone change information has been updated to use TZ database version “2021a” (instead of “2020a” which was used before). This new version has a few subtle corrections and improvements to various areas in the world.
A few changes that aren't new feature additions or bug fixes have been made to Astrolog 7.20, which means certain old assumptions are no longer valid. Most can be considered improvements, but they still change existing behavior. A list of these follows (which aren't useful to be aware of unless you have used previous versions of the program):
1. Central object position: In other planet centered charts (that are something other than geocentric or heliocentric) the position of the central planet itself if unrestricted will be the position 180 degrees opposite the Sun (and no longer the position opposite the Earth).
2. Ley lines interface: Ley lines (involving an interlocking icosahedron and dodecahedron) will now be displayed on the rectangular world map chart (when the -Xi modify display setting is on) if the new -YXW switch is non-zero. Ley lines used to be displayed here (when -Xi is on) when the 3D houses setting was on. Note that when the -Xi modify display setting is off, then the -YXW switch setting will display a different grid of triangles or squares over any of the world map charts.
Here are bugs or other issues with version 7.10, all of which have been corrected in 7.20:
1. Planet centered chart inaccuracy: Charts centered on other planets (something other than geocentric or heliocentric) wouldn’t support light time apparent positions correctly, and would use the light time for delay for heliocentric distances. That required one to use true positions to get accurate results. With increased support for planetary moons, it’s important to do both correctly.
2. Local horizon inaccuracy: Local horizon charts (which include astro-graph) should produce positions independent of zodiac settings (i.e. whether tropical or sidereal, including any sidereal ayanamsa). These charts would move and therefore be inaccurate if the ayanamsa or zodiac degree offset setting was non-zero.
3. Latitude crossing omission: The astro-graph chart’s list of latitude crossings (-L0 switch) would not include some crossings if they took place near 180 degrees W/E longitude. This known issue had been present in the program since version 2.10 released in 1992, and is finally fixed now. :)
4. 3D house transit bug: Transit to natal events of a planet entering a new 3D house (-t -c3 switches) would display the planet’s current zodiac position incorrectly if the “print nearest second” setting (-b0 switch) was on.
5. 3D house transit restriction bug: Transit to natal events of a planet entering a new 3D house (-t -c3 switches) wouldn’t respect house cusp object restrictions correctly. For example, restricting the natal Ascendant would cause most 3D house change events to not be displayed, regardless of which 3D house was being entered.
6. 3D house interpretation crash: Interpretation of transit to natal events for a planet entering a new 3D house (-t -c3 switches) wouldn’t be displayed and would often crash.
7. Constellation labeling bug: Constellations in the world map display (-XW switch) would not be labeled correctly with their abbreviations, and their labels would always appear just as dots.
8. Constellation lines omission: When constellations were being displayed, in two places a boundary line segment between two constellations that was supposed to be drawn, would be missing.
9. Ray rulership omission: Ray rulerships wouldn’t be shown in the standard text listing (-v switch), unless the Esoteric Astrology chart (-7 switch) was displayed first.
10. Sector velocity inaccuracy: In Gauquelin sector charts (-l switch) the velocity of planets would be inaccurate, because the velocity values being displayed were from the end of the day instead of the chart time.
11. Save background error: In the Windows version, the commands on the “File / Save As Wallpaper” submenu would work correctly, but also caused a memory leak error message to be displayed when the program exited.
12. Aspect interpretation omission: Interpretations of the aspect grid and aspect list chart (-g and -a switches) would not display an interpretation for aspects between two cusp objects. Also, the aspect grid would not display an interpretation between a cusp and Uranian object.
13. Printer output glitch: In the Windows version, printing a text mode chart would include bad characters for certain symbols. Printing now turns off DOS graphics characters to ensure printing of text charts works on modern printers.
14. HTML color limitation: HTML text generated would always use the default color palette, and wouldn’t use color palette changes made with the -YXK switch.
15. Telescope Earth display: In the graphic telescope chart, the Earth wouldn’t display properly when it’s viewed from other bodies. Earth would never appear as a crescent or with any shadow upon it regardless of angle. Also, the Earth would always be drawn behind all other planets, regardless of how close it actually is.
16. Moon orbit limitation: In the graphic solar system orbit chart (-S -X switches) logarithmic orbit distances wouldn’t affect the Moon and Node objects. All moon related objects that orbit planets (including all 27 planetary moons) will now be displayed an appropriate distance from their planet, allowing an astronomically accurate display of the Sun and all planets, in which all moons around those planets will also be visible at the correct angle around them.
17. Angle latitude inaccuracy: In other planet centered charts, the house cusp objects would change ecliptic latitude from 0.0, which shouldn’t happen since they’re always geocentric objects.
18. Transit graph display: In the graphic transit graph charts (-B/-V -X switches) the maximum height of peaks would sometimes not be marked with a white line, if there were two points of the exact same height adjacent to each other.
19. Wireframe display: 3D wireframe files saved of Astrolog’s globe chart (-XG -X3 switches) would be generated with extremely wide sign boundaries, if the 3D houses setting was on.
20. Sidebar display glitch: The wheel chart graphics sidebar normally allows 25 characters to fit within each row. Unfortunately, if there are 10 or more objects in each quadrant, the quadrant counts line will be 26 characters, and cause the last character to overlap the right edge. Now, if any line is 26 or more characters, then it will be offset slightly to the left.
21. Compilation error: The Astrolog 7.10 sources wouldn’t compile if certain compile time options were disabled. Specifically, compiling with GRAPH turned off would result in several errors.
AstroExpressions or “Astrolog Expressions” are programmable customizations that don’t require recompiling the program, and can be considered an extended form of command switches. AstroExpression functions and related command switches have been updated in version 7.20. This section can be ignored if one doesn’t use this feature area.
The following lists all new AstroExpression functions. The name of each function is listed, followed by the type of its return value and the expected types of its parameters (if any). Numbers will automatically be converted to Integer or Real as needed. “Num” means either type is handled, without any conversion needed.
Tween: Bool(Num, Num1, Num2): Between. Returns whether Num lies within the range of Num1 to Num2. This is basically a shorthand version of “And Gte <Num> <Num1> Lte <Num> <Num2>”.
ObjDay: Real(Int). Object day length. Returns an object’s length of day or how long it takes to rotate upon its axis, in hours.
RAMC: Real: Right Ascension of Midheaven. Returns the RAMC in degrees (0-360) for the most recently cast chart.
DeltaT: Real: Delta-T. Returns the Delta-T offset in seconds for the most recently cast chart.
JulianT: Real(IntM, IntD, IntY, Real): Julian Time. Returns the Julian time for the given month, day, year, and time in hours.
AspLon: Int(Int1, Int2, IntV): Aspect check. Returns whether there’s an aspect between objects in the current chart indicated by Int1 and Int2, taking into account all orb settings. If an aspect is present, then custom variable IntV (if a valid variable index) will be set to the orb between them in degrees.
AspLon2: Int(Int1, Int2, IntV): Relationship aspect check. Like AspLon but checks for an aspect between planet positions in the first two chart slots.
AspLat: Int(Int1, Int2, IntV): Parallel aspect check. Like AspLon but checks for parallel or contraparallel aspects between planet positions in the current chart.
AspLat2: Int(Int1, Int2, IntV): Relationship parallel aspect check. Like AspLat but checks for an aspect between planet positions in the first two chart slots.
DoGrid: Bool. Make aspect grid. Compose the internal aspect/midpoint grid for the planet positions in the most recently cast chart, as used in certain Astrolog charts, and as accessed via the GridNam and GridVal functions. Returns whether creating the grid succeeded.
DoGrid2: Bool(Bool). Make relationship aspect grid. Compose the internal aspect grid (or midpoint grid if the parameter is True) for the planet positions in the first two chart slots, as used in certain Astrolog charts, and as accessed via the GridNam and GridVal functions. Returns whether creating the grid succeeded.
_Yz0, _Yu0: Bool or Real: Program setting. This list of functions queries the Astrolog setting that’s set with the identically named command switch.
_XI1, _XI2, _Xr, _Xm, _XT, _Xi, _Xuu, _Xll, _XA, _XL, _Xj, _XF, _XW0, _Xee, _XU, _XC, _XQ, _XN, _YXe, _Xwx, _Xwy, _Xnn, _Xs, _XSS, _XU0, _XE1, _XE2, _XE, _XL0, _X1, _XGx, _XGy, _XZ: Bool or Int or Real: Program graphics setting. This list of functions queries the Astrolog graphics setting that’s set with the identically named command switch. There are only a few exceptions: Functions _Xuu, _Xee, _Xnn, and XSS access the -Xu, -Xe, -Xn, and -XS switch settings, and repeat the letter of the command switch in their names to avoid a case insensitive name conflict with _XU, _XE, _XN, and _Xs. Functions _XI1 & _XI2, _Xwx & _Xwy, _XGx & _XGy access the two parameters passed to the -XI0, -Xw and -XG switches.
There are several new command switches which allow one to define AstroExpression “hooks” into areas of chart calculation or display, to modify or filter their results. All AstroExpression related command switches start with the tilde (~) character:
1. ~j0 <string>: Adjust sign influence powers. Called when a chart’s sign powers are computed in the text mode -j0 influence charts. On entry, @y is the sign, and @z is its power. Return value is ignored, although if you update @z it will be the new power used. For example, to give an extra 200 relative power to fire signs, do: ~j0 "If Equ Mod @y 4 1 =z Add @z 200.0"
2. ~dv <string>: Determine void of course times. Called when the transit to transit times chart (-d switch) decides whether an aspect indicates a void of course event. On entry, @v is 0 if checking whether this event starts void of course and @v is 1 if checking whether this event ends void of course, @w is the first object forming the event, @x is the aspect or other event (-1: sign change, -2: direction change, -3: degree change), @y is the second object forming the event (or new sign if that event), and @z is the default decision for whether this marks void of course moon. Return value is ignored, although if @z is changed it will be the new indicator for void of course. For example, to detect and display void of course Sun times (i.e. the period between the last aspect the Sun makes before the Sun enters the next sign) instead of void of course Moons, do: ~dv "=z ?: @v And Equ @w O_Sun Equ @x -1 And Equ @w O_Sun Gt @x 0"
3. ~F[O/C/A] <string>: Font adjustment. Called each time a real font character is displayed in the Windows version, and allows customizing its display. This can be used to change which glyphs are displayed for which characters, and where. On entry, custom variable @u is Astrolog’s index for what’s being drawn (i.e. which sign, object, house, or aspect depending on the command switch defined), @v is the font character (usually between 32-127 for low Ascii), @w is the font index (1=Wingdings, 2=Astro, 3=Enigma, 4=Unicode, 5=Hamburg, 6=Astronomicon), @x and @y are the pixel coordinates where the glyph will be drawn (which can be adjusted to move glyphs that seem off-center), and @z is the relative scale percentage (which can be adjusted for glyphs that seem too large or too small). Return value is ignored, although if any of @v through @z are modified they will be used to draw the glyph instead. For example, to randomly display sign glyphs using one of the first four fonts available, do: ~F "=w Rnd 1 4 =v Add @u ?: Equ @w 1 93 ?: Equ @w 2 64 ?: Equ @w 4 9799 ?: Lte @u 9 48 ?: Equ @u 10 38 ?: Equ @u 11 34 49"
4. ~U <string>: Filter extra star output. On entry, custom variable @v is the star index, @w is the star’s zodiac position longitude, @x is the star’s latitude, @y is the star’s velocity, and @z is the star’s magnitude. For example, to only display stars brighter than magnitude 3.0 (which will reduce the number of stars from over 1000 to 172) do: ~U "Lt @z 3.0"
5. ~U0 <string>: Filter extra asteroid output. On entry, custom variable @w is the asteroid index, @x is the asteroid’s zodiac position longitude, @y is the asteroid’s latitude, and @z is the asteroid’s velocity. For example, to only display asteroids that are located within 10 great circle degrees from the Sun, do: ~U0 "Lt PolDist @x @y ObjLon O_Sun ObjLat O_Sun 10.0"
A few improvements, changes, or bug fixes have also been made in the AstroExpression area:
Aspect adjusting extended: The ~A switch now affects parallel and contraparallel aspects too. In this case, when the AstroExpression is invoked, @w will contain A_Par or A_CPr.
Object ordering limitation: The ~v object ordering switch wouldn’t affect certain charts, such as the transit graphs (-B/-V switches), and the aspect list when its ordering is based on object (-aO/-aP switches).
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Astrolog and all chart display routines and anything not enumerated below used in this program are Copyright (C) 1991-2021 by Walter D. Pullen (Astara@msn.com, http://www.astrolog.org/astrolog.htm). Permission is granted to freely use, modify, and distribute these routines provided these credits and notices remain unmodified with any altered or distributed versions of the program.
The main ephemeris databases and calculation routines are from the library SWISS EPHEMERIS and are programmed and copyright 1997-2008 by Astrodienst AG. The use of that source code is subject to the license for the Swiss Ephemeris Free Edition, available at http://www.astro.com/swisseph. This copyright notice must not be changed or removed by any user of this program.
Additional ephemeris databases and formulas are from the calculation routines in the program PLACALC and are programmed and Copyright (C) 1989,1991,1993 by Astrodienst AG and Alois Treindl (alois@astro.ch). The use of that source code is subject to regulations made by Astrodienst Zurich, and the code is not in the public domain. This copyright notice must not be changed or removed by any user of this program.
The original planetary calculation routines used in this program have been copyrighted and the initial core of this program was mostly a conversion to C of the routines created by James Neely as listed in 'Manual of Computer Programming for Astrologers', by Michael Erlewine, available from Matrix Software.
Atlas composed using data from https://www.geonames.org/ licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Time zone changes composed using public domain TZ database: https://data.iana.org/time-zones/tz-link.html
The PostScript code within the core graphics routines are programmed and Copyright (C) 1992-1993 by Brian D. Willoughby (brianw@sounds.wa.com).
More formally: This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful and inspiring, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details, a copy of which is in the LICENSE.HTM file included with Astrolog, and at http://www.gnu.org
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* Walter D. "Cruiser1" Pullen :) ! Astara@msn.com *
O Astrolog 7.20 Web site: http://www.magitech.com/astrolog/astrolog.htm O
* "Who am I, What am I? As I am, I am not. But as we are, I AM. And to *
O you my creation, My Perfect Love is your Perfect Freedom. And I will be O
* with you forever and ever, until the End, and then forever more." - GOD *
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