Solunars by Aldebaran Sidereal Academy

AstroVizor has become by absolute favorite astrology app for my phone. For several years it has been a minor, handy app to have. With a couple of changes recently, it has become a fairly robust app that I will be using a lot more often. - I've used it on Android; it's also available on iOS, though I have no idea whether features are identical on the two platforms.

I also bought AstroGold a few years ago (from the creators of Solar Fire). I was severely disappointed in it and almost never use it. One issue isn't necessarily with the programmers - it's that the iOS and Android platforms are necessarily different. Android is a free platform that phone manufacturers can adapt as they see fit, so (more or less) every implementation is a little different. Therefore, the Astro Gold programmers felt they couldn't create a unified Android version that would have all the functionality (and work correctly). For example, it doesn't do lunar returns, which would have made a huge difference. I also find it quite awkward for most things.

AstroVizor, as I've used it historically, is much simpler. The free version pops open at a tap and shows me a chart of the moment (detecting where I'm located and doing the chart for that moment and place), which is really handy for a quick look at current planet positions. I can then quickly spin the date to another date for a quick approximate check of positions on another date. (I could do an entire chart, but historically I haven't tended to do that. The built-in atlas doesn't have everyplace, but has a LOT of places, including Koreatown, California, which is really simply my neighborhood (coordinates within 1' of my home). This sort of thing, alone, made it worth having the free version of AstroVizor on the front screen of my phone, a tap away.

Two things happened recently to increase my interest and use - to really transform my use of it.

First, in the past I had wanted to step up to the paid version because I'd heard good things about it. But their only way to do this was a monthly subscription model. Not all that much money, but I really didn't want to add an unending monthly subscription (so I didn't). But they recently added an option of one annual payment (about $12 IIRC) - paid through the Google Play Store (or Apple Store, I'm sure), so I'm not giving them my card info - and I was quite happy to pay that for the extra features. (You can still use it free OR step up to the paid version.)

Second, they recently added some significant new capabilities to the paid version including very accurate calculations of Sidereal Lunar Returns. (My favorite feature: Once you calculate a return, it has plus (+) and minus (-) buttons to rapidly step forward from one return to the next (or prior). You can tap through a year's worth of SLRs in less than 10 seconds (though you probably want to pause and look at them .

In the next comments I'll give some pointers on how to use it.

To get the basic setup that makes life easy (and gives you that "show me a chart for right now with one tap"), I recommend the following preliminaries. In all instructions following, I use the word Menu to mean the three horizontal lines ("hamburger") in the upper right corner.

Menu > Zodiac. Pick Fagan-Bradley.
Menu > Planets > Set of Planets. Pick 10 planets if it isn't already picked, then tap Save.
Notice, while on this Planets menu, what other options are available.
Menu > Houses. Pick Campanus. [Free version doesn't have Campanus. Maybe pick Koch.]
Menu > Aspects > Set of Aspects. Set up the aspects you want. I created my own sets called Class 1 and Class 2. To create a new set, tap New set of aspects Simple orbs by Aspects, tap Included Aspects and check the aspects you want included, then back up (the < in the upper left corner) and pick Orbs values and set each one in turn. When done with that, back up (<) and tap Save, which will let you name the set. You can now switch between aspects whenever you want (I leave mine set at Class 1).
Menu > Aspects > Aspected Points. This is probably correct, but check it anyway.
Menu > Aspects > Set of Aspects.

Menu > Settings > Chart Appearance. Set as you wish. (Notice in passing that for south of equator charts you can change Wheel Direction to clockwise. No other program allows this!) Tap Wheel Orientation until you get what you want (I pick Asc-Dsc Horizontal). Tap Planetary Positions for which most will want Degrees & Minutes but you can also show no positions, degrees only, or signs only. Decide whether you want Symbols of Aspects to show. Under Symbols of Houses you can show house numbers in different ways or (like me) turn them off.

An important setting IMHO is Exactness of Aspects. I recommend setting this to "by line thickness. I suggesting setting Show Conjunctions as "draw arcs," but make your own choice.

I suggest setting Signs and Houses to "Equal Houses, Unequal Signs." However, you have a lot of variations. - Also make any other small cosmetic changes you want.

Menu > Settings > Default Location. You can pick a location to always use in transit charts or in "show me a chart for now," etc. You can add a city. I suggest picking Use Network/GPS so that it will always pick up exactly where you are.

WARNING: The option "Default Settings" undoes all your changes. It sends you back to how the app first was installed. Don't do that unless you want to have that result. You can also use "Save settings" to save your setup in case something happens (like you need to reinstall the app).

Menu > Help. This is surprisingly good. It tells you how to use the app.

Here's how my chart looks with my default settings.

At this point, whenever you tap to open the app, it will open showing a chart for that exact moment at wherever you are. If (because of opening other charts) you ever get away from this default behavior and want it back, tap Menu > Time & Place > Present Time.

You can easily move it forward or backward in time. Press and hold for a moment any column of the date field (e.g., on the month, or on the "tens" unit of the hour or the "ones" unit of the hour). Then, slide your finger up or down on the main screen to cause the data column to move forward or backward. (Hard to explain, easy to do.) Same with any other entry at the top, or with the city name in the location.

There is a data table at the bottom. Too bad it doesn't give PV longitude because, if it did, it would have everything! With my poor eyes, the longitudes on the wheel are a little hard to read (but readable), but the data table below gives them at a glance. If gives the very useful planetary motion. If you scroll all the way to the right, it also gives altitude - which tells you how close the planet is to the horizon mundanely. (When very close to the horizon, altitude and PV longitude give nearly identical results). BTW, you can two-finger pinch on the screen to resize either the wheel or the table.

You can edit the data table. Click Table icon > Planets and a new top-bar icon appears toward the right (with blue horizontal lines). Tap this and you can select columns you want to display. Right Ascension and azimuth are there (for mundane contact with EP-WP and Vertex-Antivertex). [Unfortunately, RA is in time; but compare it to RA of cusp IV or X.] Hour Angle is distance from MC in RA, so it's your best estimate of mundane contact with MC-IC (not exact like PVL, but it will do in a pinch). Azimuth is a little different than we're used to seeing it, being bidirectional from MC instead of one-directional from IC), but you can still take plus-minus 3° from 90° as your guide.

Three small icons are at the left edge of the top bar. One is a chart wheel, and lets you determine what chart you want to pull up. One box (regrettably I've forgotten whether it exists on the free version) says Midpoints and gives you a 90° wheel! (You can set whether it is 360 down to 90 and what orbs you use for midpoints.) Unfortunately, this has a couple of bizarre bugs: If you turn on angles (a separate step), it often puts them in the wrong place. Sometimes coming out of this to a normal chart wheel, all the planets are moved to wrong places. I think (but haven't confirmed) that it's mixing up the zodiac conversion and applying it twice (or some such thing), which makes this lovely feature less usable than otherwise. - Check out the other things on this menu for some small, nice surprises.

The second icon looks like a grid. This lets you pick what appears on the table. Planets is usually what you want. Aspects gives you an aspectarian (not in the most useful form IMHO, but it's there). Calendar is really useful, showing exact times of aspects and sign ingresses (including Moon sign) going forward from the time of your viewed chart (and you can tap each item and pop to a chart for its exact time). You don't need the RA column if you add HA. Etc.


The third upper left icon (formed of Moon and Jupiter glyphs) is Planets, and lets you change what planets you are viewing.

These are the main features of the app, whether free or paid version.

I used the free version for years, but only in really simple ways. (For example, I think I could have saved charts to the phone, but I never did, so also I never did two-wheel work, but I think I could have). Some of the things I mention below might have been available in the free version and I never noticed (but it costs nothing to find out). I'm going to use this post to outline some of the useful things you can do with the paid version (some of which also work in the free version).

Calculate & Save a chart. Press and hold on the date items (in the date bar) and use up and down gestures on the screen to move these forward or backward. You can swipe left-right to change the column you are setting. (This is WAY harder to explain than to do, you'll catch on fast.) Set the date and time you want. Then, for the place, tap Menu > Time & Place > Search a City. It will be obvious how to step down to your location. -- To save the chart, tap Menu > Time & Place > Save which will give you a chance to name and save it. (There is also an Open option on that menu for opening the saved item later.) - I have saved separate charts for Marion and me and natally and locally (the latter with (LA) at the end of the name.)

Work with two different charts. Tap the wheel icon and pick Chart 1. Open the saved chart you want first. Then tap the wheel icon again and pick Chart 2. Open the second chart you want. (On Menu > Time & Place,, instead of Open you can also pick Present Time.) You can then flip back and forth (using the Wheel icon) or pick Wheel > Dual Chart to see them in a two-ring chart. (The text is tiny but you can pinch-zoom or use the data tables at the bottom.) - Rotate the phone to landscape orientation to see a slightly better view of the two-ring chart. -- See the menus for other things, e.g., the Wheel menu has a Composite option. The aspectarian table now shows aspects between the two charts (you may have to switch to a different preferred aspect set.) Etc.

Predictive work including solar and lunar returns. Pull up the natal chart you want as Chart 1 then switch to Chart 2 (Wheel > Chart 2). (It's easier if you have the natal saved for the desired location, but you can change location during the process.) Double tap anywhere on the date bar (this is counter-intuitive but it's how it works) and, on the new menu, pick Derived Chart. (For transits, you can just pick Present Time.) Under Derived Chart you can pick Directions (many kinds including solar arcs), Progressions (many kinds; under Progression Settings, "Fast Houses" means quotidians!), and returns. This is where it gets juicy!

Solar and lunar returns. Follow the steps immediately above. On the Derived Chart menu, pick Return Settings. Pick what you want: solar or lunar, lunar phase if you want to test the hard to calculate Synodic Lunar Return), or Planetary Return. The Planetary Return option is where you can calculate demi-lunars: It lets you set Natal Point (pick Moon), Transiting Point (pick Moon), and Harmonic (pick 2). [You can also do Danica's favored solilunar and lunisolar charts here by switching around natal and transiting planets.] After get these settings right, back out one step (press < in upper left) and tap Return. It will calculate the current chart you have picked. It will also give you plus (+) and minus (-) icons to move forward and backward through these charts!

For example, here is my May 17 Demi-SLR just for home. In the upper left see the indicatiosn that tell you it is a demi-lunar.
I can tap Wheel > Dual Chart and get a two-wheel version of this. It's hard to read and, unfortunately, will only put Chart 2 planets around Chart 1 angles (so I suppose I should start with the natal as Chart 2?). But you have options.


How about Hindu planetary periods with which we've been experimenting? This is the ONLY astrology software I've seen anywhere (except my own spreadsheet) that gives Hindu periods and subperiods the way Donald Bradley thought they should be investigated. Pull up your chart. Tap the Table icon near upper left and then Planetary Periods. Tap the big gray button and set the Year (near the bottom) to 360 days and select Vimshottari Dasha. You'll immediately get a lifetime of your major periods. Tap any of them to get the dates of the subperiods. - I've tested this, the calculation is exactly right. - We don't know that this method works, but it has some promising examples. This app will let more people test that possibility.


There is more. You can wander around the menus and keep finding things. Want harmonic charts? They're here (under Zodiac). More trans-Neptunian planets than you ever knew you would want, including Eris, Quaora, Makemake, and Haumea? Just add them (TNPs are under Asteroids).

Oh, and something utterly worthless now but very very cool: You can look at a chart as viewed from another planet! Menu > Zodiac > System Center lets you move between Geocentric, Heliocentric, Mercury-centric, Venus-centric, all the way out to Saturn-centric. (Remember to remove Earth's Moon from the displayed planets.) How else could I know that at the moment of my birth on the planet Mercury, Sun was in Cancer exactly square Saturn; on Venus, I'm still a Virgo but with a whole new set of aspects; on Mars I'd be a Leo; and so forth. (The Jupiter-centric chart is fascinating!) - All for fun, but you can learn some things about how things change when you shift planet centers.

Is this Astro Vizor? When I searched AstroVisor I was led to a YouTube channel, and the search engine asked if I meant Astro Vizor.

Jim, I have an old I-Phone with a max of 12.5 OS. Do you know the OS number required to use this app?

Veronica wrote: Fri Apr 12, 2024 5:25 am Is this Astro Vizor? When I searched AstroVisor I was led to a YouTube channel, and the search engine asked if I meant Astro Vizor.

In the Google Play store, the label does not have the space (but it might have it other places you look). The app is by Andrei Semenov.

SteveS wrote: Fri Apr 12, 2024 8:57 am Jim, I have an old I-Phone with a max of 12.5 OS. Do you know the OS number required to use this app?

Here's a link to the web version of the Apple app store:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/astrovizo ... orm=iphone

At the bottom it says it requires iOS 8.1 or later.

Thanks Jim, I am definitely going to get this app.

SteveS wrote: Fri Apr 12, 2024 9:50 am Thanks Jim, I am definitely going to get this app.

Enjoy. I'm adding more instructions above on what I think will be the most popular features. Of course, the key to really knowing it is to go through the menus step by step to see what's there, to real the surprisingly good Help section, and just to play around with it.

I suggest you don't pay for it at first - get it, play around, get used to it, make sure that it's workings and appearance work for you. Then, if you're happy with it and want the other features, decide whether to pay for it for a year.

Jim, purchesed the app and got my issues with my old I-phone resolved. Going through the Help section taking notes.

Jim, I calculated my Natal but got the wrong ASC (15 degree Lib), should be 27,55 Lib. Obviously I put in the time zone, I guess. When I pull-up my Natal here is what the date reads: Sept 20, 1947 Sep 20 10:00:00. I used the Chicago time zone. Can you tell with this explanation what I need to do or did not do to my correct natal? Thanks

Jim, instead of my birthtime of 10:00 AM CST, I have to put in the numbers of 11:00 to get my correct birthchart. This is somewhat perplexing. I realize AstroVizor does not have a World Atlas with correct time zones---so, what is the best way to handle this time zone conflict with AstroVizor for other natives I want to compute their Natals/Return Charts with AstroVisor? Thanks

When I set the date and time, then set the city at Albertville, it incorrectly sets the time zone at "GMT +05." Whatever time data it is tapping thinks Albertville was on EST or, more likely, CDT. I don't know what source they are using (and over the weekend I saw conversations online of people trying to pin down a U.S. time zone when the American Atlas used by Solar Fire seemed wrong and three different sources all disagreed). It's bizarre that we still have this problem!

Regardless, the zone is wrong. I'd leave the time at 10 AM but edit the time zone to "GMT +06."

BTW, did you get an answer from the Apple Store about your phone?

Thanks Jim. Yes, I got all my answers and issues resolved at the Verizon store/apple.

SteveS wrote: Mon Apr 22, 2024 8:17 am Thanks Jim. Yes, I got all my answers and issues resolved at the Verizon store/apple.

And you have the full program now? Cool.

For the feature that interested you, bring up your chart in the program (if you didn't save it before, save it now), then tap the Table icon (second from left) and Planetary Periods. Tap the big gray button and select Vimshottari dasha and year = 360 days. This will bring up a lifetime of major periods. tap North Node (your current one, which I think means Uranus instead) to see all your sub=periods (bhuktis). You see that you are in a two and a half year Mercury sub-period. Tap Mercury to get third-level sub-periods and see that you are in Venus (perhaps happy today because you got your questions answered), lasting through April 30. Tap Venus to get another level of subs (South Node which I think means Neptune) beginning yesterday. Tap that to get the final level of subs showing more Venus (lasting until tomorrow afternoon),

Play around with lunar returns. You'll want to have that ready when you visit friends and family.

Exactly Jim, you are right, its a very versatile program for our phones.

SteveS wrote: Tue Apr 23, 2024 12:19 pm Exactly Jim, you are right, its a very versatile program for our phones.

After all these years of using it very simply, I think it's worth the few dollars I paid for a year's subscription. I'm sure I'll renew it as long as they stay in business.

Yes, same for me Jim.

I just realized the other day that you can display charts going the opposite direction - with East at the right side - which is how charts should be displayed for south of the equator and about half the time in the tropics. Here is Helen Reddy's chart (born in Melbourne) shown this way.