Skyscript Astrology Forum

Hello everyone,

since I started studying astrology, I always had the opinion that astrological knowledge should be shared. However, a key issue is that a clear chart is essential for both the beginner as for the professional astrologer. Unfortunately, most of today's software are not really directed to the export of high quality graphics.

Therefore, I'm very excited to let you know about Charts. Charts is a new web application that allows you to create high quality astrology charts in a minimalist and distraction-free interface. You can use your charts in your blogs, web forums or for your own publications. Your charts are yours!

Charts should work on all devices and operating systems and it is free!
You can find it at http://apps.flatangle.com/Charts/.

Let me know of your suggestions, enjoy and share!


Jo?o Ventura
http://www.flatangle.com/

Hi there,

just a test to see how it looks: ?dith Piaf's chart at 500x500 pixels, transparent background..

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Jo?o Ventura
http://www.flatangle.com/

It looks very good, Jo?o. Is tropical zodiac/Alcabitius houses the only combination available?

Martin Gansten wrote:It looks very good, Jo?o. Is tropical zodiac/Alcabitius houses the only combination available?

Hi Martin, thanks!

I'm hoping to implement a "settings" menu during this week, so that users can select other house systems (e.g., Regiomontanus, Placidus, Koch, etc.).

Regarding the zodiac type, I only have the tropical zodiac for now. But if these types of charts appeals to enough Sidereal Astrologers, I may implement the necessary functionalities to support the sidereal zodiac as well. But I must confess my ignorance on sidereal astrology, therefore I may need some hints from "sidereal" practitioners.


Jo?o Ventura
http://www.flatangle.com/

Well, 'sidereal astrology' doesn't necessarily refer to a particular school or system (although in modern times it has become associated with the teachings of Cyril Fagan). It's just a different way of defining the starting point of the zodiac. Many ancient and classical astrologers used other zodiac definitions than the tropical one, so I think it would be a good idea to include the option -- it doesn't require a whole 'package deal' of other techniques or variables.

Hi there Jo?o - thanks for offering this charting facility. It works very well with this setup:

Linux Mint 13
Cinnamon v.2 desktop
Firefox browser
Shotwell photoviewer (for downloading and viewing images)

Thanks for offering cross-platform functionality.

Ed

It's looking really good, Jo?o - very easy on the eyes, so crisp and clear, and the ease of export is a boon. Thank you for creating this app and making it freely available. I look forward to seeing the additional options you plan to implement, and again my appreciation!

Martin Gansten wrote:Well, 'sidereal astrology' doesn't necessarily refer to a particular school or system (?). It's just a different way of defining the starting point of the zodiac.

Hi Martin,

so, from what I understand, it is basically a displacement of the signs, am I right? For instance, 0? Aries moves forward (or backwards) a variable number of degrees accordingly to the year.

I'm reading this wikipedia article, and there seems to be two or three different ways to calculate the angular displacement. Is any of those the most adopted method? (Ayanamsa vs shift by fixed amount of 25.5 days by Cyril Fagan).

astralwanderer wrote:Hi there Jo?o - thanks for offering this charting facility. It works very well with this setup:

Linux Mint 13
Cinnamon v.2 desktop
Firefox browser
Shotwell photoviewer (for downloading and viewing images)

Thanks for offering cross-platform functionality.

Ed

Hi Ed,

thanks for the confirmation on Mint "Maya"! Although I'm currently using a retina Macbook as my main computer, my secondary computer is a 7 year old HP laptop running Linux Xubuntu 14.04. Therefore, Linux and cross-platform compliance is an essential part of my work!

Even more, my server runs Linux CentOS, I'm using open-source languages and web standards (e.g., the chart is pure SVG - Standard Vector Graphics), and I'm releasing some of my code (specially development code) as open source software:
- https://github.com/joaoventura/init.js
- https://github.com/joaoventura/temple.js

I'm hoping to be one more proof that, on the long run, one can have a sustainable business using open-source software and contributing to open-source software. But there's still much work to be done..

Astraea wrote:It's looking really good, Jo?o - very easy on the eyes, so crisp and clear, and the ease of export is a boon. Thank you for creating this app and making it freely available. I look forward to seeing the additional options you plan to implement, and again my appreciation!

Hi Astraea, thanks!

I have some more tweaks and functionalities to add to this application, but I'll share the news here on skyscript and by email to those contacts that I have from skyPlux.

By the way, are you still using the old G4/G5 Mac? Is Charts running fine on it?


Thanks everyone,
Jo?o Ventura
http://www.flatangle.com/


PS: I usually send email announcements. If anyone wants to receive them by email, send me an email to flatangleweb@gmail.com and I'll add you my mailing list contacts.

jventura wrote:Hi Martin,

so, from what I understand, it is basically a displacement of the signs, am I right? For instance, 0? Aries moves forward (or backwards) a variable number of degrees accordingly to the year.

I'm reading this wikipedia article, and there seems to be two or three different ways to calculate the angular displacement. Is any of those the most adopted method? (Ayanamsa vs shift by fixed amount of 25.5 days by Cyril Fagan).

Yes, it's just a displacement of the signs (though, of course, from a sidereal perspective it's the tropical signs that have been displaced!). I'm no programmer, but I'm fairly sure that all or almost all astrological software calculates tropical positions first and then subtracts the ayanamsa of choice (I hope others will correct me if I'm wrong here). I believe a variety of ayanamsa values are available in the Swiss Ephemeris.

Martin Gansten wrote: Yes, it's just a displacement of the signs (though, of course, from a sidereal perspective it's the tropical signs that have been displaced!). I'm no programmer, but I'm fairly sure that all or almost all astrological software calculates tropical positions first and then subtracts the ayanamsa of choice (I hope others will correct me if I'm wrong here). I believe a variety of ayanamsa values are available in the Swiss Ephemeris.

Hi again Martin,

yes, the subtraction between positions seems to be the procedure. I think it can be fairly easy to integrate this in my current framework.

And it seems that Swiss Ephemeris has a variety of ayanamsa methods as you mentioned (http://www.astro.com/swisseph/swephprg. ... k477842044). I will try to find an hyperlink that has any good explanation of these different methods, like the formulas, or at least of their names (for instance, to know what SS_REVATI means..).



Thanks,
Jo?o Ventura
http://www.flatangle.com/

jventura wrote:Hi Astraea...are you still using the old G4/G5 Mac? Is Charts running fine on it?

No, I have a MacBook Pro now (running Mountain Lion, OS X 10.8.5) and Charts looks excellent on it. Love the font and wheel design!

jventura wrote:yes, the subtraction between positions seems to be the procedure. I think it can be fairly easy to integrate this in my current framework.

I'm very glad to hear it.

And it seems that Swiss Ephemeris has a variety of ayanamsa methods as you mentioned (http://www.astro.com/swisseph/swephprg. ... k477842044). I will try to find an hyperlink that has any good explanation of these different methods, like the formulas, or at least of their names (for instance, to know what SS_REVATI means..).

Might this help?
http://www.astro.com/swisseph/swisseph. ... c379890186
(I suspect SS means S?ryasiddh?nta, an important astronomical work in Sanskrit.)