CREATING, SAVING AND LOADING CHARTS -- AND MORE...
Creating a chart is a simple matter of entering the required information
for the horoscope. This is done by way of the main menu "Info -> Set
Chart Info..." selection. An "Enter Chart Info" dialog pops up
prompting for Month, Day, Year, Time, Daylight Savings (Yes or No), Time
Zone, Longitude, Latitude, Name and Location.
A "Save Chart Info" dialog is opened by selecting "File -> Save Chart
Info" from the main menu. The file name must fit the old DOS
limitation... a base name of up to eight characters followed by a period
and a three character extension. You must be imaginative to save your
chart file with a name that has some meaning. If you are like me you
will collect many charts and names like "chart001" reveal very little
about the contents of a file.
Chart files are saved to disk in a simple ASCII text format that throw
Astrolog command switches when loaded. You should use an extension of
"dat" when saving a file since Astrolog will optionally filter out all
other extensions when you want to load a saved chart file from the "Open
Chart Dialog" activated by "File -> Open Chart..." on the main menu.
Here is an example of the text contained in a typical astrolog chart
file...
@0102 ; Astrolog chart info.
/qb Jul 4 1998 2:54 DT +8:00 122:39W 48:18N
/zi "Example Chart" "Oak Harbor, WA"
...the first line, beginning with "@0102" tells Astrolog that this is a
standard chart file. The "/qb" is a command switch telling astrolog to
calculate a chart based on the information that follows. Finally, the
"/zi" command looks for two strings surrounded by quotations to provide
descriptive information about the chart... usually the name of the
native and the name of the nativity location.
Since Astrolog does not use a cryptic data format you could actually
create an Astrolog chart with a text editor like notepad!
VIEWING/PRINTING CHARTS AND DATA
I'm lumping viewing and printing together since selecting "File ->
Print" from the main menu will cause whichever chart view you have
selected to be printed.
The type of data to be viewed or printed is determined by various
selections -- mostly by four main menu selections working in concert,
"View, Info,
Chart and Graphics".
VIEW MENU
The "View" allows selection of graphical or text charts, and whether to
use plain or colored text. It also allows customization of the color
scheme for graphical chart components.
HIDDEN TREASURE IN THE VIEW MENU!
There is a selection for viewing interpretations which I recommend
selecting, at times, but not for the interpretations! Though, the
interpretation strings may be customized they still leave much to be
desired. The secret reason for selecting "Show Interpretations" is
purely aesthetic. It causes an interesting, colorful border pattern to
appear on the graphical chart making a beautiful chart print out or just
a pleasant view in the program. Give it a try!
The remaining selections on the View menu are "Print Nearest Second",
"Applying Aspects" and
"Parallel Aspects".
NOT ROUNDING OFF OR "HEY, BUDDY... GOT A SECOND?"
"View -> Print Nearest Second" shows all angular components in
degrees, minutes and seconds rather than degrees rounded to the
nearest minute of arc.
COMING OR GOING? ASPECTS - APPLYING OR SEPARATING
"View -> Applying Aspects" prepends aspect orbs with an 'a' or 's'
indicating whether the aspect is applying or separating.
AHA... DECLINATIONS!
"View -> Parallel Aspects" provides declination aspects (parallel or
contra-parallel) rather than the usual longitudinal aspects.
INFO MENU
The Info menu provides a way to enter new chart data, or load multiple
charts for comparison, composites, midpoints, synastry, and date
difference data. It also provides a quick way to view current transits
and secondary progressions. It even has an option for a biorhythm
chart!
CHART MENU
The "Chart Menu" allows setting various chart or data views such as the
"Standard List", the "House Wheel", Aspects, Midpoints, Solar System
Orbit, Gauquelin Sectors, and some other handy dandy gadgets such as a
calendar, "Astro-Graph", an Ephemeris, a list of Arabic Parts, and
Rising and Settings of Planets.
Try each view in both graphics mode and text mode (only the Arabic Parts
listing has only a text view). To toggle between graphics and text,
select the chart view and then Select "View -> Show Graphics"... each
time you click "Show Graphics" you will toggle between text or graphics
mode. Graphics and text mode each have their own particular advantages.
THE STANDARD LIST AND THE HOUSE WHEEL
The two views that you'll find yourself using over and over again are
the "standard List" and the "House Wheel". There is no difference
between these views in graphics mode, however, there is a *world* of
difference in the text view.
COPYING CHART TEXT TO THE WINDOWS CLIPBOARD
This brings me to one of the advantages of text views and another tip in
using Astrolog in conjunction with sending astrological charts by
e-mail...
Try this... call up a chart, select the House Wheel View (Chart -> House
Wheel) then select "Edit -> Copy Chart Text Output". This places an
ASCII (text) chart into the Windows clipboard that you can paste into an
e-mail message! You can do this "Edit -> Copy Chart Text Output" option
to copy any of the text views to the clipboard which is handy for many,
many things... the sky's the limit!
GRAPHICS MENU
The "Graphics" menu has many options. There are two options in
particular that I want to point out and they are "Reverse Background" and
"Monochrome".
REVERSE BACKGROUND
Selecting "Reverse Background" from the Graphics menu changes the
background color from the default black color to a pleasant white. This
is also handy if you have a color printer and want to save ink... the
black background will drain your ink cartridge after printing only a few
graphical charts!
Refer to section TIPS ON CUSTOMIZATION AND MORE
if you want this option to be in effect every time you start Astrolog.
MONOCHROME
Selecting "Monochrome" in conjunction with "Reverse Background" will
turn off all colors if you want to save the colored ink in your color
printer while printing graphical charts... everybody has a color
printer, right? ;-)
OTHER GRAPHICS OPTIONS
Experiment with the other options to get a feel for some of the useful
and interesting graphics options available. Have fun!
TIPS ON CUSTOMIZATION AND MORE
Always apply the golden rule of intelligent tinkering by saving all the
parts before making a change. I highly recommend copying the original
astrolog.dat file to a file called "astrolog.org". The "org" extension
serves as a reminder that this file is the original astrolog.dat file.
You must use the "File -> Save" settings menu options for any of your
customization changes to be remembered every time you run Astrolog.
This is a good thing because it allows you to do some slightly advanced
things without altering the way you normally use the program.
You can make the white "Reverse Background" the
default by adding the command line switch -Xr to the end of the
program line in your shortcut or Win3.x Astrolog program object
properties.
For Windows 95: Move your mouse pointer over the Astrolog icon, then
click the right mouse button. On the menu that pops up, select
"Properties". A dialog window pops up titled "Astrolog Properties".
Click the "Shortcut" tab. Click on the field titled "Target:" and add
"-Xr" (without the quotation marks) to the end of the command line. It
should look something like...
C:\astrolog\ASTROLOG.EXE -Xr
Click the "OK" button and you're done!
For Windows 3.x: Single-click the Astrolog icon. Select "File ->
Properties" from the Program Manager menu. Click on the field titled
"Command Line:" and add "-Xr" (without the quotation marks) to the end
of the command line. It should look something like...
C:\astrolog\ASTROLOG.EXE -Xr
Click the "OK" button and you're done!
RESTRICTIONS - THE KEY TO PERSONALIZING ASTROLOG
The default settings for Astrolog will get you by for a little while,
however, you'll eventually want to set things up the way you want. Do
you want to see only the seven traditional planets unless you specify
otherwise? Do you want to normally show the asteroids or selected
asteroids each time you run the program? Want to see aspects to angles
or house cusps? You can do all this by setting restrictions and then
saving your settings.
Another thing that most astrologers like to set to their liking are
aspect orbs. Restrictions, aspects and aspect orbs are set by way of
the "Settings" menu.
THE SETTINGS MENU
I could just about write a book on the options available from the
"Settings" menu. For brevity, I'll just touch on a few things; House
System. House Settings, Aspect Settings and Restrictions.
HOUSE SYSTEMS
Selecting "House System" from the "Settings" menu allows you to choose
one of many popular house systems. The default house system is
Placidus, however, you may choose Koch, Equal, Campanus, Meridian,
Regiomontanus, Porphyry, Morinus, Topocentric, Alcabitius, Equal(MC),
Neo-Porphyry, Whole and Null (the Null setting makes 0 Aries the
Ascendant).
Choose your house system and be sure to use "File -> Save Settings" if
you always want Astrolog to use that system every time you start the
program.
HOUSE SETTINGS - SOLAR CHARTS AND MORE
Selecting "Settings -> House Settings" provides a few interesting
options including the ability to view the current chart as a Solar
Chart. A Solar Chart uses the position of the Sun as the Ascendant
which gives an interesting perspective on any chart.
ASPECT SETTINGS - HERE AN ORB, THERE AN ORB...
Selecting "Aspect Settings..." from the "Settings" menu allows you
customize the orbs used for aspects and which aspects to show by
default.
There are 18 aspect choices... from conjunction to quatronovile!
An [X] in the box to the left of an aspect means that that particular
aspect is restricted from view. Clear any [X]'d boxes to the left of
the aspects you wish to see and click the empty box to the left of any
aspects you want to "turn off".
Set the orbs you wish to use by clicking in the box labeled "Orb" to the
right of any aspect you want to modify.
Click the "OK" button when you are finished and remember to select "File
-> Save Settings" if you want your changes to be remembered.
RESTRICTIONS - SO MANY OBJECTS!
Selecting "Restrictions" from the "Settings" menu allows the selection
of up to 40 main objects in four categories (planets, minor objects
including asteroids, houses and Uranians) to be shown in your chart.
Like the aspect settings, an [X]'d box means an object is restricted
from view. Remember to click "File -> Save Settings" if you want your
changes to be remembered.
FIXED STARS - ALL RIGHT... WHO BROKE THE OTHERS?!
Up to 47 Fixed Stars may be selected for view by way of "Settings ->
Star Restrictions" in a manner similar to Aspects and other object
restrictions... an [X]'d box means the Star will be restricted from
view. Clicking an [X]'d box clears the restriction and the object
will be shown in the charts.
WHOLLY MACRO -- THROWING POWER SWITCHES
AUTOMATICALLY!
You may have noticed that each of the menu items have an corresponding
keystroke listed in the menu dialog. They can also be accessed by
command line "switches". A "switch" is a parameter passed to a program
telling it what to do automatically.
After you get familiar with Astrolog you may find that you repeat many
tasks over and over. When this is the case you can set up a macro to
do this repetitive task from the "Edit -> Run Macro (Normal Set)" menu.
Here's a simple example... say you often want to see the transits of
outer planets to house cusps for the current month. The command line
with switches would look like this...
astrolog -i chartname -tn -RTO 6 7 8 9 10 -R0 -RC -C
...where chartname is the DOS filename.ext of the chart file to do the
transits on.
You could set this up as a macro by following these steps...
1. Open astrolog.dat by "Help -> Documentation -> Open Defaults"
2. Go to the end of the file, enter the following lines just before the
line that reads, "; astrolog.dat"...
-M0 2 "_X -tn -RTO 6 7 8 9 10 -R0 -RC -C"
-WM 2 "Outer Planet Transits This Month"
NOTE: The "-M0 2" line defines Macro 2 and the "WM 2" line sets the
text displayed in the "Edit -> Run Macro (Normal Set)" menu.
The really cool thing about using macros is that they will be applied
to the current chart. With the precceding example, you could see the
outer planet transits to house cusps for any chart rather than being
restricted to one particular chart specified on a command line!
TIP: Set up Macros just before the end of the file and use the ";" to
make a comment indicating where your macro definitions belong. Reserve
Macro 1 for resetting the default astrolog.dat file. The following
format should get you started...
; DEFINED MACROS
-M0 1 "-i c:\astrolog\astrolog.dat"
-WM 1 "Reload Default Settings"
-M0 2 "_X -tn -RTO 6 7 8 9 10 -R0 -RC -C"
-WM 2 "Outer Planet Transits This Month"
NOTE: Make sure you use the correct drive letter on the line defining
macro 1... c: is probably the most common, however, you may install
Astrolog on any drive... it'll even run from a floppy disk!
CAUTION!!!: Make a backup of your astrolog.dat file if you define
macros since using the "File -> Save Settings", unfortunately, over-
writes your macro definitions. You may want to make a macro definition
file (macros.def) and then use copy and paste to place them into
astrolog.dat so that you always have your macros on hand.
ADVANCED USE EXAMPLES
FINDING OUT-OF-BOUNDS PLANETS
An out-of-bounds planet is one that has gone beyond the ecliptic limits
of 23 degrees 27 minutes of declination. You can use astrolog's macro
facility to help you see these "OOB" planets. Here's how...
Define Macro 3 like this...
-M0 3 "-sr"
-WM 3 "OOB View (Pos relative to equator/ecliptic toggle)"
What this does is change the way the declination degrees are shown.
Normally, declination degrees are shown relative to the ecliptic where
it is difficult to determine whether a planet is OOB or not, the "-sr"
command switch toggles declination (and Right Ascension) to degrees
relative to the equator.
Run the Macro by selecting "Edit -> Run Macro (Normal Set) -> OOB View
(Pos relative to equator/ecliptic toggle)" and then look for
declinations beyond 23 degrees 27 minutes. Run the Macro a second time
to toggle the view back to normal.
NOTE: You should always toggle this back or your planet positions will
seem a bit off since the Right Ascension is now computed relative to the
equator rather than the normal ecliptic relation.
ASPECTS, SIGN AND DIRECTION CHANGES THIS MONTH
Want to quickly and easily see what is happening "out there" this month?
The following macro definition will provide a list of aspects, sign and
direction changes for the current month...
-M0 4 "_X -dm -R0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10"
-WM 4 "Aspects, Sign and Direction Changes This Month"
LEARN TO EXPLOIT ASTROLOG'S VAST POTENTIAL - EXPLORE
AWAY!
Keep using and exploring Astrolog... it does far more than I could
possibly cover in this simple mini-FAQ.
This file was authored by Tyrin R. Price and HTML coded using GNU
Emacs 20.3.1 under the Linux Operating System -- Choice of the GNU Generation.
Tyrin R. Price 11 Apr 1999
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