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** VERSION 6.50 **

Release notes for Astrolog version 6.50 (July 2019):

Happy start of Leo everyone! :) This file describes the freeware astrology software
program Astrolog version 6.50 and the additions and fixes made to it, over the previous
version 6.40 which was released exactly one year ago in July 2018. The main things in
this update are 3D astrocartography charts (instead of just 2D rectangular charts), more
support for stars, and a number of bug fixes.

NEW FEATURES
Here are new additions to version 6.50 that weren't in previous versions:
1. 3D astro-graph charts: Astrolog supports 3D graphic astrocartography charts, which
are drawn on a spherical globe instead of just a flat rectangular map. This globe can be
rotated and animated, and in the Windows version you can right click and drag to view
different parts of the world. To display a 3D astro-graph chart, select the “Graphics /
Show Globe” command (-XG switch on the command line). The 3D astro-graph is a
separate chart from Astrolog’s existing classic astro-graph chart (accessed with -L -X
switches). You can even toggle between them with the “3D Houses” command (-c3
switch or “a” hotkey).
As with the classic 2D astro-graph chart, by default Midheaven lines are yellow,
Ascendant lines are red, Descendant lines are green, and Nadir lines are blue. The
Midheaven lines will be labeled at the planet’s zenith point, Nadir lines at the
planet’s nadir point, and Ascendant and Descendant lines at Earth’s equator.
Midheaven and Ascendant lines have glyphs in the planet’s color, while
Descendant and Nadir lines always have glyphs in gray. The presence of
Midheaven, Ascendant, Descendant, and Nadir lines can each be individually
 toggled with the “Rising and Setting Restrictions” in Display Settings (-YRZ
switch). If all four are restricted, then planets will still be plotted but only at their
zenith points, which duplicates behavior from previous versions. A magenta dot
will be drawn at the location for the chart, with a dotted line around that latitude
in order to make latitude crossings near the location more apparent. This dot can
be turned off by toggling the “Text Astro-Graph Shows Latitude Crossings” flag
in Chart Settings (-L0 switch).
Internally, the 3D astro-graph chart is part of Astrolog’s globe display, which
even in previous versions would plot the zenith location of each planet on the
map. This feature just extends it by also drawing each planet’s four sets of lines
upon the globe. That means astro-graph lines are supported on Astrolog’s other
world map displays, namely the rectangular world map (including the oval shaped
Mollewide projection of it), and polar projection world map. The rectangular
world map (-XW switch) is very similar to Astrolog’s existing graphic astro-
graph chart (-L -X switches), except for differences in how the lines are labeled.
(Users may prefer one style to the other.) You can switch between the two styles
of rectangular astro-graph chart with the “L” (for classic astro-graph chart) and
“W” (for world map showing astro-graph lines) hotkeys.
2. Sunshine houses: Astrolog now supports the Sunshine system of house division.
Similar to APC houses, in Sunshine houses non-angular cusps aren’t always 180 degrees
opposite each other. Near the poles, Sunshine houses can have five cusps in a row
overlapping, and therefore have four houses in row zero sized. In the Windows version
this system can be selected with a new menu command on the “House System” submenu.
On the command line, Sunshine houses can be accessed with “-c 20”.
3. Mixed progressions: Astrolog supports a mixed progression mode in which the
planets are secondary progressed (meaning planetary positions are computed at a future
date) but house cusps are progressed by solar arc (meaning the same offset is applied to
all cusps). In the Progressions dialog, select the new “Secondary (Solar Arc Cusps)”
option to compute in this manner. From the command line, use the new -p1 switch to do
progressions of this type. (Note that “p1” can be used in all switch contexts that “p” for
secondary progressions can, and “p0” for solar arc progressions can.)
4. Cusp progression factor: The rate that progressed house cusps move (whether
computed or by solar arc) compared to the default can be specified. In the Progressions
dialog, change the new “Cusp Move Ratio” field to define the slowness factor to apply to
progressed house cusps. From the command line, use the new -pC <number> switch to
set this value. For example, Astrolog’s default for secondary progressions is quotidian,
which means the cusps move 360 degrees around the zodiac each day. However, other
types of progression have the cusps move the same speed as the Sun. Change the cusp
move ratio field from “1” to “365.24219” (values are in the dropdown) and that will
make cusps move 365.24219 times slower, which will make them move just 1 degree per
day, about the same as the Sun.
5. Ecliptic axis: Astrolog’s chart sphere and local horizon charts use the local horizon for
its “equator”, while Astrolog’s globe charts are aligned with the Earth’s equator. These
charts can be tilted so they’re aligned with the ecliptic instead, with the new “Use Ecliptic
Axis” command on the “Graphics / Map Effects” submenu (or use the new -YXe switch
on the command line). When in this mode, rotating and tilting the globe will do so
relative to the ecliptic.
6. Star distance ordering: Lists of fixed star objects (such as in text charts and in the
wheel chart sidebar) can be ordered by distance from the viewer. Select the new “By
Distance” option in the “Fixed Star Ordering” section of the Chart Settings dialog (or use
the new -Ud switch on the command line). Note that determining star distances requires
Swiss Ephemeris to be the calculation method. Older calculation methods will assume all
stars are exactly 100 light years away from our Sun.
7. New aspect sorting methods: Aspect sorting in the aspect list chart, and in the transit
influence charts (-a, -D, and -T switches) can be sorted by two new methods. The -a
switch can be invoked as -aP to sort by the name of the second object forming the aspect
(similar to how -aO sorts by the name of the first object forming the aspect). The -a
switch can also be invoked as -aD to sort by the zodiac position of the second object
(similar to how -aC sorts by the position of the first object).
8. Search paths: The new -Yi <path> switch is a way to specify search paths for loading
files, such as ephemeris files and chart information files. This switch takes one parameter
indicating a directory to look within for files. There are actually ten different switches
-Yi0 through -Yi9 (in which -Yi by itself is equivalent to -Yi0) which can cover ten
different paths. The default astrolog.as default settings file contains a couple instances of
-Yi pointing to sample directories. Note that -Yi can’t be used to help find astrolog.as
itself for its initial loading, because the astrolog.as file is loaded early before even the
command line is processed. However, because the directory of the executable is searched
before anything else, placing astrolog.as next to the executable will ensure it’s found, and
-Yi switches inside astrolog.as can be used to point to any other paths. System
environment variables pointing to directories such as ASTROLOG are still supported, but
are no longer necessary to define file paths.
9. Central planet autorestriction: Changing the central planet will now automatically
unrestrict the old central planet and restrict the new central planet from appearing in
charts. For example, switching from geocentric to heliocentric (through either the
Windows interface or the command line) will automatically restrict the Sun and unrestrict
the Earth to reflect what looks best in a heliocentric chart. Restrictions will only be
changed if both the old central planet is restricted and the new central planet is
unrestricted. This behavior is active by default, but can be prevented with the new -YRh
switch. If turned on, then no restrictions will change when the central planet is changed.
10. Aspect line dashedness: In graphics charts, dashed lines are used when drawing
aspect lines whose orbs aren’t exact, with more space between points indicating a wider
orb. The -YXa <num> switch indicates the maximum number of pixels allowed to be
skipped between set pixels. Limits are useful to prevent very wide orbs from being hard
to see. Images such as http://www.astrolog.org/astrolog/pic/orbit2.png (which compares
Earth’s to Venus’ orbit over time) are generated by having 360 degree orbs, or always
drawing a line between two planets (and never with any dashedness in them, so -YXa 0 is
used).
If the parameter is negative, then that modifies aspect lines so that exact aspects
are drawn solid, and aspects at the orb limit for the aspect in question are drawn
with <num> spaces between points. This may be preferred to the default behavior
in which the dashedness of the line is only based on the number of degrees the
aspect is different from exact. The default behavior will result in aspects to the
North Node (which by default only allows a two degree orb to it) to always be
nearly solid, even if the aspect is near the orb limit for being shown at all. The
Modify Display command (-Xi switch) will toggle between these two display
modes (i.e. it negates the value of the -YXa switch).
11. Solar system sidereal: The new “Solar System Sidereal” flag in the Calculation
Settings dialog (-Ys switch) will modify sidereal zodiac positions to be relative to the
plane of the solar system (instead of relative to the plane of the ecliptic, which is the
default). The difference is subtle, especially for centuries near the present, however the
solar system plane is stable relative to the background of stars, in comparison to the
ecliptic which does change over time. As a result this option is useful for stellar
animations spanning many thousands of years. For example, the animation
http://www.astrolog.org/astrolog/screen/dipper2.gif covering a million years was
generated with this setting on.
12. Color palette updating: The new -YXK switch can be used to redefine the actual
colors within Astrolog’s default color palette. It takes two parameters, the name of the
color to redefine, and the new RGB color value to use for that color index. The RGB
color value can either be a three comma separated decimal numbers, or the “#” character
followed by three two character hexadecimal numbers in sequence. For example, “-YXK
Orange 255,127,0” or “-YXK Orange #ff7f00” will change the color “Orange” from the
dark yellow that’s the default to an actual fiery orange color.
13. Extra star labeling: The -XU switch to display the list of additional stars can have
the stars displayed as larger dots, and can also have the stars labeled with their names.
Stars will be labeled with their traditional or common name (if any), otherwise by their
scientific nomenclature abbreviation. The -XU switch can be invoked as -XU1 to turn on
larger dot placement, -XU2 to turn on name labeling, -XU3 to do both, and -XU0 to do
neither.
14. Extra star colors: The new -YkU switch can be used to specify colors to use for
particular extra stars when the Show All Stars setting (-XU switch) is active. It takes one
parameter, which is a comma separated list of string pairs. These pairs indicate the name
of a star followed by the name of the color to use for it. For example, “-YkU
Alkaid,Red,Mizar,Blue,Alioth,Green,Megrez,Yellow,Dubhe,Orange,Merak,Magenta,Phe
cda,Purple” will highlight the seven stars of the Big Dipper in the seven Ray colors.
15. Extra star restrictions: The collection of extra stars shown by the Show All Stars
setting (-XU switch) supports ways of focusing upon or excluding certain stars. The new
-YRU switch will restrict certain stars from appearing, while the -YRU0 switch will
make only certain stars appear and ignore all the rest. It takes one parameter, which is a
comma separated list of strings indicating star names. For example, “-YRU0
Alkaid,Mizar,Alioth,Megrez,Phecda,Merak,Dubhe” will make the extra stars feature only
show the seven stars of the Big Dipper, and skip all other stars.
16. Extra star lines: When the extra stars shown by the Show All Stars setting (-XU
switch) are drawn, lines can be drawn between certain pairs of stars. The new -YXU
switch will define what stars to draw lines between. It takes two parameters, a comma
separated list of strings indicating stars that may have lines connected to them, and a
comma separated list of number pairs indicating indexes of stars within the list of strings
to connect. For example, “-YXU Alkaid,Mizar,Alioth,Megrez,Phecda,Merak,Dubhe
0,1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4,5,5,6” will draw lines among the seven stars of the Big Dipper.
17. Monthly rising and setting: The -Zd switch which prints rising and setting times has
been extended to support scanning an entire month, year, or range of years. The -Zdm
switch will scan the entire month, the -Zdy switch will scan the whole year, and the -ZdY
<years> switch will scan the number of years specified starting with the current year.
18. Windows hourglass: The new -Wh switch toggles whether the Windows version
shows an hourglass mouse pointer while calculating and drawing charts. This setting is
on by default, but one may want to turn it off during animations to prevent the mouse
pointer from continually flashing to and from the hourglass.
19. Disable warnings: The new -Wt switch disables warning popup messages in the
Windows version, such as ephemeris files not being found. One scenario where this can
be used is star charts for the distant past or future. Heliocentric barycentric positions of
fixed stars don’t require calculating the position of the Sun, and therefore can be
calculated for any date and don’t depend on ephemeris files being available. However,
Astrolog will still warn about dates out of range, which can be ignored in this scenario.
For example, the animation http://www.astrolog.org/astrolog/screen/dipper2.gif covering
a million years was generated with -Wt on.
--
Here's a summary of the 17 new command switches in Astrolog 6.50 that weren't in
previous versions:
-a[jonOPACDm]: Sort aspects by power, orb, orb difference, 1st planet, 2nd planet,
aspect, 1st position, 2nd position, midpoint.
-Zd[m,y,Y] [<years>]: Like _Zd but for entire month, year, or years.
-U[z,l,n,b,d]: Sort by position, lati, name, brightness, or distance.
-p1 <month> <day> <year>: Like _p but with solar arc cusps only.
-pC <days>: Set factor to use when progressing cusps (default 1.0).
-Ys: Sidereal zodiac positions are in plane of solar system.
-Yi[0-9] <path>: Specify directory to search within for files.
-YRh: Don't auto(un)restrict central planet when changing it.
-YRU[0] <starlist>: Restrict or focus on list of extra stars.
-YkU <starlist>: Customize list of extra star colors.
-YXK <col> <rgb>: Customize RGB value of color index.
-YXe: Align certain charts to ecliptic.
-YXa <num>: Set limit to dashedness in aspect lines drawn.
-YXU <starlist> <linklist>: Define lines between extra stars.
-XU[0-3]: Like _XU but set whether to show larger star dot and name.
-Wh: Set hourglass cursor when redrawing chart.
-Wt: Don't display warning and error popup messages.
Here's a summary of the 2 new menu commands in the Windows version of Astrolog
6.50 that weren't in previous versions:
Setting / House System / Sunshine
Graphics / Show Map Effects / Use Ecliptic Axis

EXTENDED AND IMPROVED FEATURES

A list of improvements to existing features in Astrolog 6.50, such as new things you can
now do with old features that you couldn’t do before, or ways existing features work
better than before:
1. 3D star positions: Astrolog’s graphic Solar System Orbit chart (-S -X switches) will
now display star objects, as well as the list of additional stars. If stars objects are
unrestricted, or the list of additional stars is being shown, then their positions will be
plotted in this chart. Because stars are so far away, the chart scaling will be in light years
instead of Astronomical Units (AU), which is a factor of about 63000. That will make all
planets appear to be overlapping in the middle of the chart, and as a result when showing
stars it’s recommended to restrict all non-star objects except the Sun. Astrolog’s 3D
wireframe file of this chart will plot stars in 3D space, resulting in a 3D environment in
which one can explore the local area of the galaxy. For example, the Astrolog animation
http://www.astrolog.org/astrolog/screen/dipper.gif flies through space around the Big
Dipper, allowing one to see how it appears from different angles.
Astrolog’s text mode Solar System Orbit chart will also now display star objects.
For stars, the “Length” column will measure light years (instead of Astronomical
Units, as is done for planets). Note 1 light year is about 63000 AU, so the stars are
actually more distant by this factor.
2. Star centered charts: The central planet setting (-h switch) allows doing heliocentric
or other planet centered charts. This has been extended to support star objects. This
means you can cast a chart centered on another star, and see how the stars and
constellations appear from the position of that star. Stars are very far apart from each
other, and the closest star to our Sun is 4.4 light years away, or nearly 10,000 times
farther away than Neptune. As a result, from other star systems all the planets will appear
very close to the Sun (within one arc minute or even narrower depending on the star).
Note that the object “Andromeda” or M31 is actually a galaxy, which means casting a
chart centered on it will actually do a chart from the perspective of another galaxy!
Because the Andromeda galaxy is 2.5 million light years away, from its point of view all
the other stars will appear very close together (within 3.5 arc minutes).
3. All stars in object list: The object list table (-HO switch) will include the list of
additional stars if the Show All Stars setting (-XU switch) is on. The extra stars will be in
a separate list after the main list of objects. For each star it will show the scientific
nomenclature abbreviation (in which something like “alCyg” means Alpha Cygni), the
current zodiac position and ecliptic latitude of the star, it’s magnitude or brightness, and
finally its traditional or common name (if any). Rows will be colored dark gray (for dim
stars magnitude 4.0 or above), light gray, or white (for bright stars below magnitude 2.0).
4. Stars in planet info: The list planet information table (-HS switch) will include star
objects if they’re unrestricted. For stars, the “Distance” column will measure light years
(instead of Astronomical Units as is done for planets) which is a factor of about 63000.
5. Logarithmic moon orbit: In the graphic Solar System Orbit chart (-S -X switches),
having the 3D Houses setting on causes planet distances from the central object to be
rendered on a logarithmic scale, to make orbits roughly equally spaced and prevent inner
planets from being squished together. This option now also affects the Moon’s orbit
around the Earth, and makes lunar objects appear a visible distance from the Earth. The
video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSZzytVUzgI shows this in action, in which
the Moon can be seen orbiting the Earth, while Earth and the other planets can be seen
orbiting the Sun.
6. Chart sphere directions: The graphic chart sphere is now affected by the “Rising and
Setting Restrictions” in Display Settings (-YRZ switch). The four lines from the center of
the sphere to the North/South/West/East points on the horizon will only be displayed if
the corresponding Nadir/Zenith/Setting/Rising flag is unrestricted. If all four are
restricted, then the prime vertical line across the sphere will go away too. If all four are
restricted and the show house details setting is off as well, then the horizon and meridian
lines will go away too, leaving just the lines of the ecliptic marking the signs of the
zodiac. (This last scenario goes well with turning on the new Use Ecliptic Axis setting, to
align the sphere with the ecliptic.)
7. More aspect sorting: The nine different options for methods of sorting aspects
(specified as subswitches to -a) apply to additional charts. They now apply to the
relationship comparison version of the aspect list (-a -r0 switches), and the transit
influence charts (-D and -T switches).
8. Aspect details: Aspects listed in various charts display the sign of the objects making
the aspects. If the “Print Nearest Second” setting is on (-b0 switch) these positions will
now be printed to the nearest arc-minute. This affects the aspect list, midpoint list, transit
to transit times and influence charts, and transit to natal times and influence charts (-a,
-m, -d, -D, -t, and -T switches).
9. House cusp transits: The “Transit To Transit Times” chart (-d switch) will now
include house cusp objects if the “Graphs Include All Planets” setting is on (-B0/V0
switches). Normally cusp objects like the Ascendant are always excluded from this chart
(even if unrestricted) to avoid too many aspects being displayed. This is now an option if
you want to see when planets conjunct house cusps, which also means when during the
day they move between houses.
10. Transit graph scrolling: In the Windows version, the vertical scrollbar can be used
to scroll down the list of aspects in the graphical transit charts (-B/-V -X switches).
Before if there were too many aspects for the window height, there was no way to see the
rest other than resizing the window taller or restricting content.
11. Yearly ephemeris interface: In the Windows version, there’s a new “Ephemeris Is
For Entire Year” checkbox in the Chart Settings dialog, which allows toggling between
the monthly and yearly ephemeris tables. This option was already available through the
“Modify Chart” command or the command line, but it’s more easily discovered here.
12. Text background colors: In the Windows version, text mode charts (with the “Show
Graphics” command setting off) may have backgrounds of any color. The background is
by default back or white (as determined by the “Reverse Background” command setting)
and can be changed by redefining these colors in the standard color palette.
13. Cusp latitudes: House cusp objects will now have their latitudes listed in the
standard listing (-v switch). Before, latitudes would always be blank for cusps. House
cusp objects are on the ecliptic and so usually have latitude 0, however settings like
“Equatorial Positions” in Calculation Settings (-sr switch) can change them.
14. Sidebar cusps: The graphic wheel chart sidebar can now include house cusp objects
in the list of planets. Each cusp object will only be included if it’s different from the
actual house cusp. Normally cusp objects are redundant, since the positions of the 12
houses are already listed, however (for example) some house systems have the Ascendant
different from the 1st house, or the Midheaven different from the 10th, which means it’s
important to list them.
15. Non-star skipping: The list of additional stars (-XU switch) will only include
physical stars and skip “virtual” bodies such as the galactic pole, if the “Graphs Include
All Planets” setting in the Transits dialog is off (-B0/V0 switches). This will reduce the
number of stars in the additional stars list from 1111 to 1100. Non-star points like this are
apparent in the sefstars.txt star list file because they have non-standard magnitudes like
0.0 or 999.99.
16. Astro-graph line improvement: The graphic astro-graph chart (-L -X switches) uses
red for Ascendant lines and green for Descendant lines, and when two of these lines
meet, a horizontal gray line would connect them. This no longer happens, and the
connecting line is half red and half green in the appropriate proportion. Note that
Ascendant and Descendant lines touch at the high or low latitude marks, and those points
are intersected by the planet’s Midheaven or Nadir lines.
17. Smoother glyphs: Astrolog has a new set of sign and house glyphs used when the
character scale is 300% or “Large”. They will make charts at this scale look smoother,
instead of just drawing the small 100% scale glyphs at triple scale, which looked blocky.
18. Improved labeling: The type of chart will be more accurately labeled in the text
mode wheel chart (-w switch), and in the graphic sidebar. Topocentric charts will be
labeled as such (instead of just as geocentric), and barycentric charts will be labeled as
such (instead of just as heliocentric).
19. More sidebar labeling: The graphic sidebar will include additional lines to indicate
less common chart types, which makes it easier to see when a particular mode is in effect.
Included will be whether the chart is progressed (and if so what date it’s progressed to),
along with special indicators if the decan, dwad, domal, or geodetic houses settings are
on. Solar charts will be indicated too, and will mention how the planet positions are being
rotated. It will indicate what planet is being rotated to what position, and whether the
rotating is to the start of sign, e.g. “Sun on Ascendant” or “Moon’s sign on Midheaven”.
20. Horizon charts separate: On the command line, the text mode local horizon chart (-
Z switch) is now considered a distinct chart from the rising and setting times table (-Zd
switch). That means they can both be displayed at once if both switches are included, and
also the -e switch to display all charts will now include both.

PROGRAM CHANGES
A few changes that aren't new feature additions or bug fixes have been made to Astrolog
6.50, 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. Map defaults: In the Windows version, the world map and globe charts start out
showing planets at their zenith locations. (And beyond that will show meridian lines and
the entire astro-graph chart by default, as described in the new 3D astro-graph feature.)
You have to enter the Modify Display mode (-Xi switch or “i” hotkey) to switch to
showing only the world map. Before, the map displays would start out only showing the
map, which means the effect of the Modify Display mode has been reversed for how it
affects maps.
2. Time / Space midpoint interface: In the Windows version, the “Time / Space
Midpoint” relationship chart command will now stay in this mode, after replacing chart
#1 with the midpoint of chart #1 and chart #2. The original contents of chart #1 will be
stored in the “previous” chart slot, and will be restored upon exiting the mode. After
exiting this mode, the “previous” chart slot will contain the information for the midpoint
chart. Before, this command would replace chart #1 with the midpoint, and then
immediately exit the relationship chart mode, which would clobber the data for chart #1
and make it harder to switch back and forth between modes.
3. Wheel aspects interface: In graphic wheel charts, showing aspect lines in the middle
of the wheel is no longer toggled with the Modify Display command (-Xi switch or “i”
hotkey). It’s now toggled with the Show Equator setting (-Xe switch or “e” hotkey). The
Modify Display command now toggles the dashedness of the aspect lines in the middle of
the wheel (i.e. it negates the value of the new -YXa switch).
4. Location setting changed: Right clicking on astro-graph charts and world maps will
no longer set the chart location to the point clicked upon. Right clicking and dragging
will now rotate or slide the world map chart in the same way you can right click and drag
to rotate globes and chart spheres. One can still relocate on astro-graph and world map
charts by Alt+left clicking on them.
5. Environment variable renamed: The version specific environment variable for file
paths in Astrolog 6.50 is “ASTR650”. Previous versions has a period present, e.g. the
previous version’s environment variable was “ASTR6.40”. This change is because some
environments such as Unix don’t allow periods in environment variables.
6. Star renamed: The fixed star object “Rigel Kent.” has been renamed to “Rigil Kent.”
because the latter spelling is more common. It also makes this star (Rigil Kentaurus, also
known as Alpha Centauri) more easily distinguished from “Rigel” (the brightest star in
Orion).
7. Documentation renamed: In the Windows version, the “Open Helpfile” command is
now “Open Documentation”. Also, this command now appears at the top of the Help
menu, in addition to on the “More Documentation” submenu.
8. Constellation grid setting: The rectangular constellation map (-XF switch) would
show a grid of dots for scale sizes 300% and above. These dots become clutter if also
displaying the list of additional stars. This grid will now only be shown if the 3D Houses
setting is also on.

BUG FIXES
Here are bugs or other issues with version 6.40, all of which have been corrected in this
release:
1. Time zone inaccuracy: Half hour time zone abbreviations mapped to incorrect offsets.
For example, selecting “HST” in the time zone dropdown (or passing “HST” to the -z
switch) would be treated as a time zone 18 minutes instead of 30 minutes after the hour.
2. Daylight time corruption: Saving chart information when the Daylight time field is
anything other than “Yes” or “No” (which includes “Autodetect” in the Windows
version) would save a bad value to file. A copy of the time zone would be saved instead
of the Daylight field, which would distort the chart by that amount if reloaded.
3. Chart position latitude saving: Chart position files wouldn’t correctly save objects
whose ecliptic latitude was between 0 and -1 degrees. Reloading would drop the negative
and place the planet between 0 and 1 degrees.
4. Transit graph years: The -Vy and -VY switches to do a transit to natal graph for a
year or five year period would only do a graph for a single month. This only affected the
command line, and not when selecting a year or years in the Windows version.
5. Star sidereal bug: Fixed stars would be positioned incorrectly when the sidereal
zodiac was on, because the tropical to sidereal offset would be applied twice. This
affected the 47 main fixed star objects, and not the extra list of 1100 stars which were
computed correctly.
6. Star velocity inaccuracy: Star velocities were only implemented in a primitive
fashion, in that sidereal zodiac stars were always velocity 0, and tropical zodiac star
velocities were always the slow average precession rate, and also the velocities relative to
average speed setting (-v0 switch) wouldn’t have any effect. Star velocities are accurate
now, and will be different for different stars based on their individual (very slow) proper
motions. They will also vary for geocentric charts, because Earth’s orbit around the Sun
produces a minor parallax effect which can cause stars to appear retrograde at times. Star
velocities will also be affected by the average speed setting (-v0 switch) at least for the
tropical zodiac. (In the sidereal zodiac the average speed of a star is 0 since there’s no
precession, and as a result average speed can’t be computed since you can’t divide by
zero.)
7. Extra stars adjustment omission: The positions of the additional list of stars (-XU
switch) wouldn’t take into account various settings. The additional stars are now affected
by the settings for harmonic charts (-x switch), decans (-3 switch), dwads (-4 switch), and
navamsas (-9 switch).
8. Extra stars bitmap omission: In the Windows version, saving the graphics chart to
Windows bitmap format or copying a bitmap to the clipboard wouldn’t include the list of
additional stars in the bitmap file.
9. Extra stars monochrome omission: Monochrome mode (-Xm switch) wouldn’t
affect the display of additional stars in the Windows version, and such stars would still be
displayed in multiple shades of gray.
10. Latitude ephemeris display inaccuracy: The graphic ephemeris when graphing
planetary latitudes (-E -X -ap switches) would only extend out half as wide as it should.
11. Chart bi-sphere aspects bug: Chart spheres in bi-wheel mode and beyond would
show improper aspect lines within charts other than the first chart.
12. Chart sphere glitch: Chart spheres display lines across the meridian with hatch
marks at every degree. These hatch marks weren’t displayed at the 30 and 60 degree
marks.
13. Bi-wheel sidebar display: Charts with no time or space wouldn’t display right in the
bi-wheel chart sidebar. If chart #1 had no time or space, then all charts in the sidebar
would be displayed as such. If only charts #2 or beyond had no time or space, then they
would not be displayed as such, and would display bad data for their chart date (including
corrupt data for the month).
14. Bi-wheel 3D houses bug: 3D houses wouldn’t display right in bi-wheels and beyond.
Turning 3D houses on would adjust based on the wrong wheel, making planets jump
wildly.
15. Transit relationship list: The text mode transit to natal and progressed to natal
comparison charts (-rt and -rp switches) would display four charts (wrongly including the
data for charts #3 and #4) instead of just two charts.
16. Text composite comparison: In the text mode comparison chart (-v -r0 switches),
charts with no time or space (such as composite) wouldn’t be labeled as such, and would
instead be shown with a bogus month.
17. Bi-wheel composite bug: Charts with no time or space (such as composite) wouldn’t
work well in bi-wheels or beyond. The chart data would often snap to some chart with an
actual time, or have the positions overwritten in some other fashion.
18. Command line crash: Putting the -tYn <years> switch by itself at the end of a
command line would crash, when it should instead give an error message about the
switch having too few parameters.
19. Command line aspect restrictions: The -RA switch would always toggle the status
of aspect restrictions, even when specified as =RA or _RA which should force the aspect
restriction on or off.
20. Quotation mark saving: Saving chart info files with a double quote character in the
name or location fields would generate a corrupt file that would usually produce an error
when loaded back into the program. Double quote characters will now be converted to
single quotes when saved.
21. File error glitch: When attempting to load a file whose “.as” extension was explicitly
specified, and that file wasn’t found, the error message would be “file.as.as not found”.
22. Graphic ephemeris glitch: Displaying the Part of Fortune in the graphic ephemeris
(-E -X switches) would sometimes have the line for the Part of Fortune cross the entire
window instead of wrapping, when passing over the 0Aries point on the edges of the
chart.
23. Transit Influence selection: In the Windows version, selecting the Transit to Transit
Influence chart in the Transits dialog wouldn’t automatically switch to text mode. If the
program was in graphics mode, this could make selecting the transit influence chart
seemingly do nothing (because you’d have to manually switch to text mode to see it).
24. Command line window sizing: Passing 0 to the -Xw switch is supposed to use the
compile time default size for the window. On the Windows version this would instead
use a default size chosen by Windows.
25. Rulership update omission: Updating the sign that a planet rules and co-rules with
the -YJ switch wouldn’t update the reverse mapping (i.e. given a sign, determine what
planet rules it) for the second co-rulership parameter.
26. Heliocentric Moon velocity: The relative velocity of the Moon in heliocentric mode
(-h -v0 switches) would be much lower than it should be. (Velocities relative to average
speed should always average about 1.0.)
27. Graphic date difference: Attempting to display the date difference comparison
relationship chart in graphics mode would show chart #2 in the wheel, but have the
sidebar show the data for chart #1, producing a weird state in which changing the chart
data would only update the sidebar and seeming to leave the wheel frozen. The date
difference chart has no graphics version, but that state should still show something
understandable, namely just chart #1.
28. House system display glitch: Some houses aren’t defined in certain circumstances
(such as Placidus and Koch near the poles). In such cases Astrolog will switch to
Porphyry, which is expected behavior. However in such a case the actual chart would still
be titled as using the original system, and not Porphyry, which isn’t accurate.
29. Metafile saving: Saving charts to Windows metafile format or copying them to the
clipboard would sometimes produce display glitches in the file, if more than one file was
created during the session. The second and subsequent files would sometimes have
effects such as wrong colored text that’s no longer visible.
30. Command line warning: In the command line version, manually entering a half hour
time zone when prompted such as “10:30w” would display a warning saying “Assuming
unusual zone of 50 minutes after the hour instead of 30”. That warning is bonus, because
the time zone will actually be a half hour (as will entering something like “10.5w”). You
have to explicitly enter something like “10:50w” with a colon to actually get an unusual
time zone 50 minutes after an hour.
31. Chart position limitation: The -YF switch which -o0 chart position files use to force
an object to be a particular value, when called on a house cusp object, will now always
set the object itself as well as the corresponding house cusp. The Angles are slightly
different: Setting the Ascendant or MC objects won’t affect any house cusps, and setting
the IC or Descendant objects will also set both the house cusp, as well as set the opposite
house cusp to be 180 degrees opposite. This allows chart position files to properly cover
cases where the Ascendant is different from the 1st cusp and/or the MC is different from
the 10th cusp, and also cases where non-angular houses aren’t 180 degrees opposite each
other. The old behavior had cusp object indexes 4 through 9 only set the corresponding
house cusps (and also set the opposite cusps to be 180 degrees opposite), and it had the
other cusp object indexes only set the cusp object (and set the opposite cusp object to be
180 degrees opposite). In other words, the old behavior didn’t properly handle house
systems like APC in which opposite cusps aren’t 180 degrees opposite each other.
32. Compilation errors: The Astrolog 6.40 sources wouldn’t compile if certain compile
time options were disabled. Specifically compiling with GRAPH, PS, or WIRE turned off
would result in a few errors.
 LICENSE
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Astrolog and all chart display routines and anything not
enumerated below used in this program are Copyright (C) 1991-2019 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.
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
O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*
O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O
* Walter D. "Cruiser1" Pullen :) !
Astara@msn.com *
O Astrolog 6.50 homepage:
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* "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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