As I use Solar Fire out of many years' habit, I also make use of its Planetarium feature. It has a decidedly 'retro' look (at least in the creaking old version I'm using), somewhat like the animation in Monty Python's galaxy song, but it does the job. Very Happy I'm sure there are more sophisticated tools, though. I had a look at one called Horoskopos not long ago, which looked promising.

I use it as well once in a while. For having a look at the fixed star panorama. But I guess I could use it more extensively as well.

For example in the Pope thread where his Saturn on *Antares in ecliptic longitude.

http://skyscript.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11885

Martin:
You've used "altitude" when refering to Mercury and Castor in your chart.
Is a planet's latitude (which I'm familiar with) and altitude refer to the same thing?

Also, I've run your chart through SF9 and planetarium and wasn't able to see how come Castor and Mercury are co-rising.

Here's what I've found - quite a large distance between them, Castor being closer to Jupiter, agreeing with the longitude of them both:
https://imgur.com/a/kPElY0Q

And about helical rising/setting, yeah it's quite a hassle. Currently I use the 15/17 degree rule, but often I find myself checking additional tables just to make sure.

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Michael: Thanks.
Actually browsed through Robson's f-star book but wasn't able to find anything other than him saying he considers the use of opposition with f-star as important (exerting a strong influence or something akin to that).

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Back to the court/trial horary I'm working on :/

A good review on Fixed Stars...
https://www.academia.edu/3111986/Ardua_ ... g_of_Stars

Matthew Robinson from the University of Chicago.

Other sites have it also - Search for Ardua et Astra

Dima Gur wrote:You've used "altitude" when refering to Mercury and Castor in your chart.
Is a planet's latitude (which I'm familiar with) and altitude refer to the same thing?

Also, I've run your chart through SF9 and planetarium and wasn't able to see how come Castor and Mercury are co-rising.

No, altitude is distance above or below the horizon. If you set Coordinate System to Local and View Direction to Horizontal, and then rotate the image until you see the ascendant, you will see Mercury right on it, with Castor considerably further north but likewise conjunct the horizon.