Solunars by Aldebaran Sidereal Academy

As a side project to my work on my own astrological application, I am mostly done cooking up a command-line tool that checks the US (or any range of longitudes and latitudes) for all angular planets within some threshold. It's still a little clumsy, since you need to pass in 1. the datetime and location for the radix, and 2. the datetime and location for the SSR (which it converts to UTC), but then it precesses the natal planets and checks all the lat/long intersections. So far, the output looks correct. Just need to figure out installers, tidy up the command line arguments, and it'll be usable. I'll probably skip the part where you input the SSR datetime and have it just find the next SSR (after a given date).

I'm planning to release this as a standalone command line program downloadable via Github, with this functionality eventually built into a larger application. I'll bundle some installers for Windows, MacOS, and Linux which will include the necessary Swiss Ephemeris files as well, and then you should be able to just run the executable, type in some info, and let 'er rip. (It's a Rust project for those who care.)

Eventually, I plan to make something graphical, similarly to how Solar Maps within Solar Fire works, but that's a long ways away.

Here's some sample output based on my recently-passed SSR: I'm doing location name lookups offline via some Rust library, so the lat/long will vary a bit from what other software chooses, but this looks basically correct. The intention is to give you a place to start so you can spot-check desired nearby locations. Otherwise, it's really difficult (at least for someone like me) to figure out where, say, natal Venus would be foreground in some SSR. At least here, I'd know where to start. I'm planning to have options for only checking certain planets, so you can skip the calculations for where malefics or TNOs are foreground.

Thats Mike. How long have you been a Rust programmer?

Question: As for the degree of difficulty what would a Rust project be like for taking 27 SLRs (0 180) for a year with the program quickly spitting-out the SLRs with only this criteria? Same for the 0 SSR.
1: A SLR planet with an angular partile aspect (0 90 180) for two or more SLR planets within 5 degrees of an SLR angle, eclipto and or mundo.
And or
2: A SLR planet for the same criteria with a Natal Planet, what I term in my work as the really special transits.
Thanks

Thus looks very promising.

SteveS wrote: Tue Feb 13, 2024 3:04 am How long have you been a Rust programmer?

Not very long; I've been using it intermittently for about a year. It's a difficult language, but really, really enjoyable to work in for a bunch of technical reasons.

Question: As for the degree of difficulty what would a Rust project be like for taking 27 SLRs (0 180) for a year with the program quickly spitting-out the SLRs with only this criteria? Same for the 0 SSR.
1: A SLR planet with an angular partile aspect (0 90 180) for two or more SLR planets within 5 degrees of an SLR angle, eclipto and or mundo.
And or
2: A SLR planet for the same criteria with a Natal Planet, what I term in my work as the really special transits.

I think this is a great idea, and I'd love to work on it, but it's outside the scope of this particular project. Maybe I'll distinguish between what becomes my "generic astrological backend" (which is the overarching context of this work), and "little helpful tools" (which this angular natal planet finder falls into); your request would fall into the latter.
In terms of the difficulty - not much more difficult than getting the solunars themselves. That is a challenge I have tackled several separate times (mostly successfully) but each time I feel like I did a crappy, hacky job of it. I always end up finding the correct times for solunars 99% of the time, and the remaining 1% is a huge pain in the rear to get correct; something falls outside of the bounds I'm checking by 30 minutes in one direction or the other, etc. I'm currently at that point again with this Rust backend.

I understand Mike--carry on with your Rust astrological work.

This project works and calculates a list of places and the foreground planets as intended. I've double-checked it against Solar Fire and the angularity spreadsheet, and it seems consistent.
I've also successfully compiled it for Linux (which is my current dev environment) and Windows (which is the host OS on this particular computer I'm on most of the time).

I'm working on making it easily downloadable from a central location (Github) so you we don't have to keep track of a direct download link or anything; that part is proving to be rather annoying for technical reasons. But the command-line tool itself exists and works.

The first release (just for windows for now) can be downloaded here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1meOoxn ... sp=sharing

I'm still trying to figure out a way to automate this effectively.

To use: download the zipped file. Extract it. Double click on "angular-natal-planet-finder.exe". This will open your terminal; follow the prompts to generate a report of locations (roughly within the continental US) where natal planets are foreground in some given solunar return. You can find that report under the output folder, with the name you gave it.

I haven't done much testing on lunar return times, or dealing with harmonics besides the conjunction (i.e. the full solar return); these may still be buggy. (They should work, but may pick bad dates/times.)

If you try it out, let me know what's messed up and I'll fix it!

Google drive (which I do my best never to go near) requires a log in, says it logs me in, then goes nowhere.

I approved you - sorry about that, I swear I looked everywhere for sharing permissions and didn't see anything more I could do to make it downloadable by anyone...

Jim Eshelman wrote: Sat Mar 02, 2024 10:47 pm Google drive (which I do my best never to go near) requires a log in, says it logs me in, then goes nowhere.

I don't like it either; it was just the first thing that came to mind. Future uploads can be anywhere. I'm still on the lookout for more permanent artifact hosting, which is what I really need. (I'm familiar with some options from work but don't care for them very much...)

Mike, I'm not sure what to download. There are four things that seem related. Just the executable? The executable and the .dll? When I click (which I thought would start a download), the only thing I get is an invitation to copy the file name.

Download the top level file! It's a zip file. You need everything in there - the executable, the DLL, and the swiss ephemeris files that the executable uses.

I am also getting basically no response when I try to download my own file from Drive - so let me try a Mega link instead:

https://mega.nz/file/ZSlyFTaa#RQ24BSFkX ... K1PEATBTJM

Downloaded, installed, and ran one. - So far I'm not sure it's of any real use to me but (1) I' have to get use to the thinking of it and (2) I know it's a work in progress.

Generating cities runs contrary to my usual thinking path on this. But I'll try it. There is something coming up that will make a good test for it. Marion has a really miserable, accident-prone, pretty violent SLR coming up at the end of the month concurrent with my having some bad stuff too. So far it looks like she has to go to Juneau, AK (at a significant cost) for an overnight to grab a transiting Jupiter line. I don't think there were any usable natal benefic lines in the U.S., but it's worth checking.

Thank you for testing it - I'm glad it does work first try at least. What's your usual thinking pattern for solving this kind of need?

Mike wrote: Sun Mar 03, 2024 12:59 pm Thank you for testing it - I'm glad it does work first try at least. What's your usual thinking pattern for solving this kind of need?

While I might notice cities on an astro-map, I primarily want coordinates. (I can find cities from there, and may even use the coordinates to pinpoint a spot outside a city that is optimal.) Every tool we have treats transiting and natal planets separately, and the natal has been the tedious problem until now. I assume you're taking into consideration precessing the natal coordinates for new equatorials and going from there, so this gives us something we've not had until now.

When I sat down to outline ideas for Mike Nelson on this, the biggest hurdle, of course, is that what we relaly want is an astro map that can show natal and transiting planets on the same map, and can show mundane contact with major angles and ecliptical contacts with minor angles (squares to major angles) all on the same screen - and it just doesn't exist right now. In the absence of a map, I thought of the way we used to do this by hand - with a grid (for rising and setting) of which longitude matched every few degrees of latitude (then draw it on a map and connect the dots with a French curve). FWIW, my best thoughts on an approach (until I quit) were here - some of the bells and whistles were obviously daydreams (like clicking a screen entry and having it launch a link to Google maps centered on the spot identified) - the second link gives my suggested workflow:
viewtopic.php?f=60&t=6129#p45553
viewtopic.php?f=60&t=6129&p=45553#p45556
viewtopic.php?f=60&t=6129&p=45556#p46102

Jim Eshelman wrote: Sun Mar 03, 2024 1:14 pm I assume you're taking into consideration precessing the natal coordinates for new equatorials and going from there, so this gives us something we've not had until now.

Yes, I precess the natal coordinates.

Thank you for linking to those threads. I have some ideas brewing about how I can accomplish many of those asks. I do eventually intend on having an astro map capability with combined natal + transiting planets, but that would follow up the full deployment of my web-based tool, so it's a long way out.

Let me chew on this for a bit and I'll post some ideas for feedback before I implement them!

Jim Eshelman wrote: Sun Mar 03, 2024 1:14 pm FWIW, my best thoughts on an approach (until I quit) were here...

I read through these links and have been thinking about it; I'm interested in your thoughts on my current plan:

• Ask for a latitude range (with some default values), and a longitude range (with some default values) or allow all longitudes. I already internally use min/max values but I haven't exposed them for user input yet.
• Replace the existing city-centric file with a file which has the geographic longitude of each planet on MC/IC, EP/WP, and EP-a/WP-a. Also include a breakdown, per planet per 5 degrees of latitude (for example), of the longitude where that planet rises/sets (i.e. calculate points on the arc for Asc/Dsc without graphing it). The exact breakdown is easy to tweak.
• Optionally Also reverse geocode and get place names (where applicable) for the listed coordinates, just so you can see (for example) "Oh, that's the longitude of LA" and you can immediately visualize it before even opening up Google Maps.

Does this sound similar enough to what you were thinking of?

Similar and way better than we have. If this were screen and easily interactive iterative, the next step would be to edit long/lat max/min so that, on seeing initial output, one can then narrow it. (My idea - how I would use it in practice - is to get the largest view than then do a digital-iterative equivalent of zooming in until all planets are dropped out but what I want and I have enough narrow enough ranges to look on a map and, eventually, have a single exact long/lat.

The city names aren't very useful to me (but might be to others). I've always going to think coordinates and then take it to a map. Otherwise, everything for lunars (for example) would be something like, "somewhere east of Phoenix" or "up by Santa Barbara," rather than "off the 101 Isla Vista at Glenn Annie Road, second left on Del Norte, drive three blocks and park." ( We've actually done that one.)

Jim Eshelman wrote: Wed Mar 13, 2024 4:42 pm Similar and way better than we have.

Awesome, I'll get working on this.

Jim Eshelman wrote: Wed Mar 13, 2024 4:42 pm If this were screen and easily interactive iterative, the next step would be to edit long/lat max/min so that, on seeing initial output, one can then narrow it. (My idea - how I would use it in practice - is to get the largest view than then do a digital-iterative equivalent of zooming in until all planets are dropped out but what I want and I have enough narrow enough ranges to look on a map and, eventually, have a single exact long/lat.

I absolutely intend to do this once I have a real web application up and running. That is the dream!