Astroplan

ASTROPLAN Philippe Laurent Version 1.2 23/03/99 Quick start guide Installation ------------ OK, you know all this stuff... Create a folder \system\apps\astroplan on your Psion, and unzip all files in it. You will also need a folder \astroplan to store your natal data files created with Astroplan. Now you must see a new icon in your Extras bar. That's all ! Features at a glance... ----------------------- Astroplan, in its new version 1.2, is now a fully featured astrology program, yet of course not as complete as professional programs available on PCs. The objective in developing it was to be able to compute and analyse any kind of natal astrological chart as well as forecasts, "on the road", on a Psion Series 5... You have the choice between several house systems : Placidus (the most common one), Campanus, Regiomontanus, and Equal. The "equal" system divides each quadrant in equal parts (there is another "equal" system using 12 equal houses, but this is not the one implemented in Astroplan). At the start of the program, the last chart is automatically redrawn. (The first time you run Astroplan, it will be 1/01/1900, 12:00am). The menu lists the main functions of the software. The first one, of course, is "new chart". Try this first, and enter your birth data. First select the location. To see all the locations available, just press Enter. If you just want to keep the place used in the last chart, press Space and Enter, and then select "current place" in the list. If you don't see the place you want, select "current place" (or any other item), and then enter the latitude and longitude in the dialog box. Longitudes and latitudes are entered as degrees.minutes. Time shift is in hours.fractions of hours. The time shift is automatically selected when you chose your location ; it is the default one for this place. However, it doesn't take care of the "daylight saving time" or summer time, and for some countries you can have an error of 1 hour. So please check this carefully. THE TIME SHIFT MUST BE THE EXACT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LOCAL TIME AND GMT AT THE MOMENT OF BIRTH (positive value East of Greenwich, negative West). The menu option "Time zone" displays a world map with... time zones to help you. Just after the data introduction, the natal wheel appears. The start point is always the ascendant (or rising point), at the left of the circle. The right part of the screen contains the aspects matrix. You must know the planetary symbols (if not, why using an astrology program ?). If you are not sure with the aspects symbols, you have : a single circle with a line (conjunction), two circles joined by a line (opposition), a square (square !), a triangle (trine), and a star (sextile). Compare two charts : you need for that at least one natal data file recorded. This function draws the recorded wheel at the right of the screen, with the start point equal to the one of the primary wheel. This enables you to graphically compare the two charts. This applies for all secondary charts (see below : progressions, transits, etc.). The top right box is for closing the window (you can also press Esc). The bottom right box opens a new window showing all aspects between the two charts. In the main menu, you can chose between standard orbs and fine orbs. The menu option "View" is for forecasts computations : - Transits : a chart is calculated for a given day. The "Asp" box draws all the aspects (transits) with the natal chart. - Monthly transits : lists all transits occurring in a given month. Only the slow transiting planets are considered, from the sun to Pluto. You have the choice of considering only the fast moving natal points, or also the slow ones. The first option (default) is generally the best, because it is more specific to the individual, slow planets are applicable for almost everyone around the world. In the list, you can see the number of the day followed by the aspect. Only the sun to Jupiter are listed this way. The planets from Saturn to Pluto are listed at the right of the screen, without any date (their effect applies to the whole month). - Symbolic direction : enter the year for calculation. All points of the natal chart are shifted 1 degree for each year passed the birth. - Secondary direction (or progression) : enter year for calculation. One day is added for each year passed the birth, and the chart is re-calculated with this new date. - Solar return : enter the year for calculation. The exact moment of the solar return is calculated (with a minute precision), and the chart is re-calculated with the new date and time. The location is kept (if you want, you can change it in the natal data before calculating). Interpretations : Under this option, you will find several interpretation systems : - Natal : interprets your natal data in plain text. If you tick the option "Print", the text will be printed rather than displayed. Press any key (but Escape) to view each following screen. Pressing Escape ends the display and returns to the main screen. WARNING : A majority of the texts presented here are extracted from freeware and shareware astrology programs. For obvious copyright reasons, they are only short extracts. Furthermore, I only used the 7 traditional planets (the sun, the moon, and Mercury to Saturn), which are generally considered as the "personal" planets (the others have meanings applying to the whole world). It is a first version of this interpretation system, so if you have good interpretation texts sorted by "planet on sign" and "planet on house" (especially for the planets from moon to Pluto), free of rights, please send them to me by mail. They will be implemented in a future version of Astroplan. - Day's tendencies : displays a synthetic view of today's (or other day's) mood, feeling, and potentials. - Year's tendencies : same thing for a whole year beginning with your birthday. Philippe Laurent philau@csi.com