Skyscript Astrology Forum

On pp. 16-18 of his Celestial Philosophy, Worsdale proposes a method of calculating the Part of Fortune in mundo which differs from that of Negusanti and Placidus. I can follow him up to a point, but when he says:

and the Oblique Descension of the Part of Fortune will be 237?52', which points to 10?26' of Sagittary,

I am lost. I understand how he gets 237?52' as the OD, and also how he derives the values of declination, RA and ascensional difference from the longitude itself (along with the geographical latitude, which is 53?15'), but I cannot see how he arrives at that longitude.

Can anyone help?

Do you know the OD of 10?26' Sag on the ecliptic?

Ed F wrote:Do you know the OD of 10?26' Sag on the ecliptic?

It's 216?00' -- not even close.

I am leaning towards the view that Worsdale simply made an error of calculation or misread a table. There is a second example in the middle of the book (pp. 128-130), which makes more sense.

Don't have the work in front of me, but Worsdale is weird with his numbers IIRC, using right ascension for the house cusps but zodiacal degrees for the planetary positions. Could he be using some sort of mixed degree calculation for Fortune? I'll have to take a look at his numbers when I get home.

GR wrote:Don't have the work in front of me, but Worsdale is weird with his numbers IIRC, using right ascension for the house cusps but zodiacal degrees for the planetary positions. Could he be using some sort of mixed degree calculation for Fortune? I'll have to take a look at his numbers when I get home.

He gives zodiacal degrees for both planets and cusps; additionally, he gives the RA of the MC and IC, and the OA/OD of Asc/Desc, outside the chart. This was a fairly common practice.

Worsdale's method of calculating the PoF is to compute the oblique ascensions or descensions of the Sun and Moon under their respective Placidean poles and then project the distance from the eastern horizon along the celestial equator. The point reached is the oblique ascension or descension of the Part of Fortune, which is then reassigned to the ecliptic and given the right ascension and declination of its ecliptical degree. He demonstrates this (at least) twice in the book, but only the second instance makes sense to me.

Martin Gansten wrote:On pp. 16-18 of his Celestial Philosophy, Worsdale proposes a method of calculating the Part of Fortune in mundo which differs from that of Negusanti and Placidus. I can follow him up to a point, but when he says:

and the Oblique Descension of the Part of Fortune will be 237?52', which points to 10?26' of Sagittary,

I am lost. I understand how he gets 237?52' as the OD, and also how he derives the values of declination, RA and ascensional difference from the longitude itself (along with the geographical latitude, which is 53?15'), but I cannot see how he arrives at that longitude.

Can anyone help?

Hi ... I've been lurking for awhile and saw your question. I think Worsdale used the pole of the 9th house, 25 S; Anton Grigoryev's RA calculator gives 10 SA 21 for an OA of 237? 52', off a few minutes from Worsdale's calcs, but pretty close.

janeg wrote:Hi ... I've been lurking for awhile and saw your question. I think Worsdale used the pole of the 9th house, 25 S; Anton Grigoryev's RA calculator gives 10 SA 21 for an OA of 237? 52', off a few minutes from Worsdale's calcs, but pretty close.

Thank you! I am sure that must be it. Worsdale does use the 9th cusp in his calculations; he probably got the figures mixed up. Well spotted!