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** VERSION 7.70 **
Release notes for Astrolog version 7.70 (April 2024):
This file describes the freeware astrology software program Astrolog version 7.70 and the additions and fixes made to it, over the previous version 7.60 which was released a year ago in April 2023. The main thing in this update is exoplanets.
Here are new additions to version 7.70 that weren't in previous versions:
1. Exoplanets: Astrolog has the ability to show exoplanets, or planets that orbit other stars. The strongest event in astrology is the eclipse or two bodies overlapping, and Astrolog can already detect when planets and moons eclipse each other. Detecting when exoplanets pass in front of their stars is a natural next step for astrology, in which exoplanet transits accentuate that fixed star’s energy. Here are various features that work with exoplanets:
Exoplanets chart: Astrolog has a new exoplanets chart, which can be displayed with the -Ux switch, or “Setting / Planetary Moons / Exoplanets Chart” menu command in the Windows version. It will show text listing exoplanet transits taking place at or around the chart time. In this chart, for each exoplanet transit its name and zodiac position location will be displayed, along with the magnitude of the star. The date/time of the transit event will be displayed as well, as a series of five values: When it might start, when it definitely starts, the middle of the transit, when it might end, and when it’s definitely ended. This text is colored red for when the “definitely no” period ends and the “maybe” period starts, yellow for when the “maybe” period ends and the “definitely yes” period starts, and green for the middle of the “definitely yes” period. If one of the times takes place after midnight on the next day, it will be instead colored white. Finally displayed is the duration of the transit, and the current uncertainty offset of it (which is always half the span of the yellow “maybe” periods).
Exoplanets don’t have known orbital elements, like planets and moons do. Exoplanets are instead detected by means such as dimming of the star they pass in front of. This means things such as Earth’s position in its orbit around the Sun may slightly affect when exoplanet transits actually take place. As a result, exoplanets transits are defined by a period and duration, combined with uncertainty offsets for both of them. These uncertainties increase the greater number of iterations a transit is from when it was originally observed. Eventually (far enough in the past or future) the yellow “maybe” periods on the sides get wide enough such that the green “definitely yes” period in the middle disappears. In such a case only three times will be displayed: When the “maybe” period starts and ends, and the middle of it displayed in yellow. If the 3D houses setting is off (-c3 switch) then only transits with a “definitely yes” period will be included in the list.
The exoplanets chart by default displays those exoplanets in effect during the chart time. If the Parallel Aspects setting is on, then it will instead search over a period of time and display all exoplanet transits that take place during it. The period of time is taken from the “times and graph cover” transit settings, and may be a day, month, year, or range of years. On the command line, the switch may be invoked as -Uxd, -Uxm, -Uxy, or -UxY to select a day, month, year, or five years. (The -EY switch setting can select a different range of years.) Also, the -ma switch setting affects the exoplanets chart, and if enabled each exoplanet transit will have listed after it the aspects it makes to planets in the main chart.
Exoplanet graphics: Exoplanets can be plotted in Astrolog graphic charts, including the local horizon, chart sphere, and globe charts. The new -XUx command switch, or the “Graphics / Map Effects / Show Exoplanets” menu command in the Windows version, will show them. Exoplanets won’t be shown if there’s no transit happening, they will be displayed in yellow if they might be happening, and they’ll be displayed in green if a transit is definitely happening. Note that exoplanets are still in the process of being discovered, and sky searches for them tend to focus on some areas more than others. For example, the default list of exoplanets has more of a presence in tropical Aquarius (or more specifically near the boundary between the constellations Cygnus and Lyra) than other signs.
Filter exoplanets: The exoplanets chart can be filtered to only display those exoplanets that are in a specified list. The new -YUx switch takes a comma separated list of exoplanet names, and indicates the exoplanet(s) to display. This is most useful when displaying an exoplanets search over a period of time, and you want to focus upon the various transits a select exoplanet makes.
Exoplanet file: The list of exoplanets is stored in the comma separated value (CSV) file astexopl.csv. In the Windows version, the new “Help / Open Data Files / Open Exoplanet List” menu command will open this file in Notepad. The default file is from the NASA Exoplanet Archive, and lists 4190 exoplanets. That’s more than the 1100 stars in Astrolog’s fixed star list sefstars.txt, however note many of the exoplanets are orbiting rather dim stars. Additional exoplanet lists can be downloaded from: http://www.astrolog.org/ftp/exo
2. Progressed rings: Astrolog multiwheels can individually turn on progressions for specific rings, which will make that ring be the chart in ring #1 progressed to the time in that ring. The new -rP switch takes a parameter indicating the ring to be progressed. In the Windows version, the “Charts #3 Through #6” command dialog has new checkboxes to turn on progression for wheels #2 through #5. This feature allows one to easily display multiwheel scenarios such as natal, transits, and progressions together.
3. Natural Lilith: The new -Ynn switch will make Astrolog’s Black Moon Lilith object be natural Lilith. The natural Lilith is a calculation which interpolates and also considers the gravitational pull of the Sun (i.e. that the Moon’s orbit is more than just a simple ellipse), and so may potentially be considered more accurate than the more common mean or true/osculating Lilith calculation methods. When active, this will override the -Yn switch setting that selects either mean or true/osculating Lilith.
4. Transit time zone: In the Windows version, the Transits dialog has fields for the Daylight Time and Time Zone fields, in the Transit to Natal Info section. This makes it clearer what time zone transit to natal charts are using when those charts are displayed.
5. Rainbow colorings: In the Windows version, in the Graphics Settings dialog, the “Wheel Fill” section has a new “Rainbow2” option. This will do a rainbow color fill of wheel charts based on RYB paint colors, such that Aries is red, Leo is yellow, and Sagittarius is blue. This is in contrast to the old “Rainbow1” option, which does a rainbow fill based on RGB light colors, such that Aries is red, Leo is green, and Sagittarius is blue.
6. Disable text: The new -Y0 switch will disable all chart text output. This can be used in scenarios when computing charts in sequence, in which the earlier charts don’t need to be displayed. For example, to display a true solar arc progression based on the Sun’s slightly variable motion per day, it requires casting multiple charts to calculate the natal and secondary progressed chart, and then doing a solar arc progressed chart with the exact offset of the secondary progressed Sun (so the secondary and solar arc progressed Suns will always be exactly the same). To do this and only display the final solar arc chart, do: astrolog -Yq3 "-i mychart.as =b0 =Y0" "~1 '=a ObjLon O_Sun' =pn" "~1 '=b ObjLon O_Sun' =p0n ~p0 '=z Sub @b @a' _Y0"
7. Default chart identity: The default set of chart info as set in the “Default Chart Info” command can now be accessed in a similar manner as other charts. The -qD and -iD subswitches will set or load a file into the default chart info. The virtual file “__d” can be used to represent the default chart.
8. Interpretation insertion: The new -YYI switch is designed to only be invoked from a macro called within one of the new ~I switch AstroExpression hooks. It takes one string parameter to add to the interpretation text output.
9. Daedalus output: The new -ox switch will output Astrolog’s star positions to a Daedalus script file compatible with Daedalus 3.4 or later. This output will include the list of extra stars (-XU switch), the list of asteroids if enabled (-XE switch), and the list of exoplanets if enabled (-XUx switch).
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Here's a summary of the 16 new command switches in Astrolog 7.70 that weren't in previous versions:
-Ux: Display exoplanets chart listing exact times of transits.
-Ux[d,m,y,Y]: Like -Ux but for day, month, year, or five years.
-ox <file>: Output star positions to Daedalus script format file.
-rP [2-6]: Make ring within multi-wheel be progressed.
-XUx: Draw transiting exoplanets in certain charts.
-Ynn: Compute location of natural Lilith instead of true or mean.
-YUx <exolist>: Set filter string of exoplanet names.
-Y0: Disable all chart text output.
-YYI <text>: Output text string in interpretation context.
-~F[O,C,A,N] <string>: Adjust for sign/object/house/aspect/Nakshatra fonts.
-~sd <string>: Set adjustment for -sd switch degree numbers.
-~Ux <string>: Set filter for exoplanet transits.
-~Iv <string>: Pre-notification for location interpretation.
-~IV <string>: Post-notification for location interpretation.
-~Ia <string>: Pre-notification for aspect interpretation.
-~IA <string>: Post-notification for aspect interpretation.
Here's a summary of the 3 new menu commands in the Windows version of Astrolog 7.70 that weren’t in previous versions:
Setting / Planetary Moons / Exoplanets Chart
Graphics / Map Effects / Show Exoplanets
Help / Open Data Files / Open Exoplanet List
A list of improvements to existing features in Astrolog 7.70, 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. Ray decorations: Astrolog can display the dominant Ray(s) of a chart in the upper left corner of a wheel chart. The -YXv switch has been extended to accept three more values. In the Windows version, the new “Wheel Corners” dropdown in Graphics Settings is populated with these three Ray related decorations. The three new options are:
“-YXv 3” switch or “Rays 1” dropdown option: The strongest Ray as shown in the -7 switch chart will be displayed in the upper left corner.
“-YXv 4” switch or “Rays 1.2” dropdown option: The strongest two Rays as shown in the -7 switch chart will be displayed in the upper left corner. For example, if the strongest Ray is 4 and the second strongest 5, it will be displayed as “Ray 4.5”.
“-YXv 5” switch or “Rays 12345” dropdown option: The five top Rays for soul, personality, mental, astral, and physical as shown in the -7 switch interpretation will be displayed in the upper left corner.
2. Rings of Quaoar: The telescope chart (-XZ switch) will display the newly discovered rings of Quaoar when zoomed in enough upon this body.
3. Transit ephemeris: The graphic ephemeris in transit and natal comparison mode (-E -X -rt switches) will now look at transit restrictions separately, and use them to determine which transiting planets to include in the ephemeris.
4. Local horizon flipping: The placement of directions in the circular local horizon chart (-Z0 -X switches) can be changed with the -YZ switch setting. If the -YZ switch setting is odd, the chart will be flipped horizontally across the East West axis (and the E/W labels will be flipped too of course). If the -YZ setting is 4 or greater, the chart will be flipped vertically across the North South axis.
5. More macros: Command switch macros as defined with the -M0 switch can be of any number now. Users are no longer limited to slots 1-48.
6. TZ database updated: Astrolog’s time zone change information has been updated to use TZ database version “2024a” (instead of “2023b” which was used before). This new version has a few subtle corrections and improvements to various areas in the world.
7. Compilation dependency: Compiling the Windows version is no longer dependent upon the Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) file afxres.h. This allows Astrolog to be compiled without having to have the large MFC area installed.
A few changes that aren't new feature additions or bug fixes have been made to Astrolog 7.70, 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. Tri-wheels reversed: Astrolog’s graphic tri-wheels and larger now have rings arranged from the inside out (with chart #1 on the inside), instead of the reverse. This makes tri-wheels and such behave like bi-wheels (which also have chart #1 on the inside).
2. Rulerships changed: Rulerships and exaltations have been assigned to the seven Dwarf planet objects. Default rulerships and exaltations have been changed for some of the four first asteroids, to be more in alignment with the most common signs used for them.
3. Progression time: For progressed charts, the text mode wheel chart (-w switch) will now display the progressed date/time in the middle of the wheel. This will be displayed instead of the chart’s Universal Time and sidereal time.
4. Ephem subdirectory: Downloads of Astrolog now place all ephemeris files in the “ephem” subdirectory.
Here are bugs or other issues with version 7.60, all of which have been fixed in 7.70:
1. Time inaccuracy: In the text mode wheel chart (-w switch) the Universal Time (UT) label of the chart wouldn’t be displayed accurately for charts whose time zone is LMT or LAT.
2. Transit crash: Accessing the “recall” chart (such as with “-i set” on the command line) after displaying a transit to transit times chart or a transit to natal times chart (-d or -t switches) would crash, due to the “recall” chart being initialized with bad name and location fields.
3. Progressed ephemeris bug: Displaying a graphic ephemeris chart (-E -X switches) with progressions turned on wouldn’t display or animate correctly.
4. Progressed text display: In the text mode standard listing (-v _X switches) with progressions turned on, the day of week of the progressed date would be incorrect (and would be the same as the natal day of the week).
5. Progressed and natal display: Displaying the progressed and natal bi-wheel chart (-rp switch) would list progressed planets in the sidebar based on natal restrictions, instead of the transit restrictions. Also, the aspects in the middle would only involve planets in the progressed wheel if they were also unrestricted in the natal wheel. Also, planets in the progressed wheel that were restricted in the natal wheel would be displayed at 0Aries.
6. Relative path limitation: Specifying relative file paths in the -Yi switches wouldn’t find the Swiss Ephemeris format ephemeris files. Now all files can be located with relative file paths, which means a definition like “-Yi ephem” will point to the “ephem” subdirectory off of the Astrolog install directory containing the executable.
7. Orbit trail crash: Increasing the value of the solar system orbit trail length field in the Graphics Settings dialog (-YXj switch) would crash the next time the graphic solar system orbit chart was generated.
8. Star color bug: Customizing the colors of stars and asteroids with the -YkU and -YkE switches would only affect the last star or asteroid in the specified list.
9. Windows glitch: In the Windows version, opening an Astrolog chart file by double clicking it would clobber the data in chart slot #2.
10. Wireframe sphere display: A wireframe file created of the chart sphere would position the astronomical constellations wrongly. (The constellations would rotate in reverse direction as the chart sphere was rotated.)
11. PostScript display: PostScript charts wouldn’t always be scaled correctly on the page, in which non-default chart or page sizes would result in tiny charts or charts clipped by the page edges. PostScript charts are now scaled in the middle of the page appropriately, for both portrait and landscape.
12. PostScript fonts: The font Consolas couldn’t be selected for PostScript text, and attempting to do so would result in text in a variable width font which would look bad.
13. Metafile display: In Windows metafile output, the vertical line between the wheel chart and the sidebar would be missing, if lines were being drawn in the standard “non-thick” mode (-Xx switch not set).
14. File limitation: In command line versions of Astrolog, the -i switch would always result in the program thinking chart information was specified, even if the file only contained settings. That would result in the program no longer prompting the user to enter chart information, and displaying a default chart.
15. X11 window bug: In the X11 Windows version, pressing enter to specify a command line, would spawn a new window afterward (leaving the old window still present but abandoned).
16. Solar arc transit limitation: On the command line, the switches -dp0y wouldn’t work to set a solar arc progressed to natal scan over the year, even though -dp0 and -dpy would both work separately to set either solar arc progressed to natal, or progressions scanning over a year.
17. Switch error handling: On the command line, passing an out of range value to the -z, -z0, or -zl switches would correctly show an error message, however would still keep the bad data in the setting afterward, which would cause problems if a chart was then displayed.
18. String appending limitation: An obscure feature allows one to include extra strings after the filename of the -o switch, and have them appended as comments to the file. This feature would only work when -o was invoked from the operating system shell.
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 7.70. 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.
Bool: Bool(Num). Boolean. Converts a number to boolean. Like the “(bool)” cast operator in C.
&&: Bool(Int, Int). Logical And. Returns whether two numbers are both non-zero. This function does not do short circuit evaluation, meaning both arguments are always evaluated even if the first is false. Like the “&&” operator in C.
||: Bool(Int, Int). Logical Or. Returns whether at least one of two numbers is non-zero. This function does not do short circuit evaluation, meaning both arguments are always evaluated even if the first is true. Like the “||” operator in C.
Dist3: Real(Real, Real, Real). 3D distance. Returns the distance from the origin to a triplicity of real coordinates.
Off: Real. Time zone offset. Returns the offset in hours from UTC of the current chart. This is normally (Tim - Dst) except also handle the case if time zone is Local Mean Time (LMT) or Daylight is Autodetect. There are similar functions for chart slots #1 through #6.
ObjLen: Real(Int). Object distance. Return the distance from the central object to the specified object, in AU. There are similar functions for chart slots #1 through #6.
AspOn: Bool(Int). Aspect on. Returns whether an aspect is present and not restricted. Specified with -RA switch.
JulianD: Real(IntM, IntD, IntY, RealT): Julian Day. Returns the Julian day for the given month, day, year, and time in hours (relative to UTC/GMT).
Alloc: Int. Allocations. Returns the number of memory allocations currently existing in the program.
AllocTot: Int. Total allocations. Returns the total number of memory allocations ever made by the program since it started.
AllocSiz: Int. Total allocations size. Returns the total size in bytes of all memory allocations ever made by the program since it started.
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. ~Ux <string>: Filter exoplanet details. Called each time an exoplanet transit is about to be displayed in the -Ux switch chart. On entry, @w is the star’s brightness or magnitude, @x is the period between transits in hours, @y is the duration of the transit in hours, and @z is the Julian Day of the current transit. Return value is whether to display the transit. For example, to only display exoplanets transiting stars brighter than magnitude 10, do: ~Ux "Lt @w 10.0"
2. ~FN <string>: Font adjustment for Nakshatra. Called each time a real font character is displayed for a Nakshatra, and allows customizing it. On entry, @u is Astrolog’s index for the Nakshatra being drawn, @v is the font character (usually between 32-127 for low Ascii), @w is the font index (6=Courier, 7=Consolas, 8=Arial, 9=Nakshatra), @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.
3. ~sd <string>: Adjust degree. Called each time a zodiac position number from 0-360 is about to be displayed in the -sd switch display mode. On entry, @z is the number about to be displayed. The return value is the number to use instead. For example, to have an alternate display mode where the zodiac is divided into 100 degrees instead of 360, do: ~sd "Div Mul @z 100 360"
4. ~Iv <string>: Pre-notify location interpretation. This is called when interpretation text for a planet position is about to be displayed. The -YYI switch can be called to prepend additional interpretation text. On entry, @z is the planet being interpreted. Return value is whether to then still display Astrolog’s default interpretation text for the location.
5. ~IV <string>: Post-notify location interpretation. This is called when interpretation text for a planet position has just been displayed. The -YYI switch can be called to append additional interpretation text. On entry, @z is the planet being interpreted. Return value is ignored. For example, to add clarifying text about Ceres to interpretations involving it, do: ~IV "If Equ @z O_Cer Switch 1" -M0 1 "-YYI 'Ceres is the only Dwarf planet in the asteroid belt.'"
6. ~Ia <string>: Pre-notify aspect interpretation. This is called when interpretation text for an aspect is about to be displayed. On entry, @x and @z are the two planets forming the aspect, and @y is the aspect. Return value is whether to still display Astrolog’s default interpretation text for the aspect.
7. ~IA <string>: Post-notify aspect interpretation. This is called when interpretation text for an aspect has just been displayed. On entry, @x and @z are the two planets forming the aspect, and @y is the aspect. Return value is ignored. For example, to add emphasis text about Squares to interpretations involving them, do: ~IA "If Equ @y A_Squ Switch 1" -M0 1 "-YYI 'This is the most challenging aspect!'"
A few improvements or bug fixes have also been made in the AstroExpression area:
More macros: AstroExpression macros can be of any number now. Users are no longer limited to slots 0-26.
ObjXN bug: The ObjXN, ObjYN, and ObjZN functions didn’t work, for starters because they only parsed one argument when they actually take two.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Astrolog and all chart display routines and anything not enumerated below used in this program are Copyright (C) 1991-2024 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. Use of that source code is subject to license for Swiss Ephemeris Free Edition at https://www.astro.com/swisseph/swephinfo_e.htm. 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 version 7.70 Website: http://www.astrolog.org/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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