Frequently Asked Questions - Solar Fire

Solar Fire Questions
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Solar Spark Questions
JigSaw Questions
Solar Writer Questions
Astro Gold for the iPhone/iPad Questions
The Imperial Astrologer Questions

Solar Fire Questions

Solar Fire Answers

General Usage

.How Can I Copy Charts in Solar Fire?

You can copy any of Solar Fire's chart displays and graphic ephemerides to the Windows clipboard (to be pasted into another program), and then to a file anywhere on your computer or network, or to a file that is automatically attached to an email ready to be addressed and sent. Various graphic file formats may be used, as well as some other options governing the appearance of the output

To copy (and then save, publish or send) a graphic:
Let’s choose the Graphic Ephemeris as an example. Once, you have created a Graphic Ephemeris page, from the Graphic Ephemeris screen, select the Copy menu item after using the right hand mouse button over the ephemeris area. This will display the Copy Image To dialog box, allowing various selections to be made

Destination:
Clipboard: this will send the graphic to the Windows clipboard, from where it can be pasted into any other program that recognizes the graphic type. For example, you can paste it into a word processor or desktop publishing program
File: this will send the graphic to a file of your choice. You will be prompted to specify a file name and location
Email attachment: This will generate a graphic file that is automatically attached to an outgoing email, ready to send, provided that you have a MAPI compliant email program. (Examples of MAPI compliant programs include Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Microsoft Exchange and Entourage; Qualcomm's Eudora; and Pegasus Mail. Not all versions of these products may be MAPI compliant; please check with the program's provider for information about the version you intend to use.)

Graphic Type:
Bitmap: this will create a bitmap file, which is a fixed resolution graphics file used in many Windows applications. This type of graphic may be placed and scaled in some other application, but as it has a fixed resolution, doing so may cause some loss of image quality. Typically this type of file is rather large (often over 1 megabyte) and is therefore not usually suitable for sending over the internet, unless it is first zipped or compressed in some way

Metafile: this will create a Windows metafile, which is a scalable graphics file used in many Windows applications. It is possible to place and scale the graphic to your requirements without loss of image quality, using the commands of the application that you are using. Hence this format is good for high quality desktop publishing. This type of file is usually very small in size, but it has the disadvantage that if you send it over the internet, the recipient must have the required Solar Fire fonts installed on their machine, or else they will see incorrect symbols in place of any astrological glyphs

JPEG: this will create a JPEG file, which is somewhat like a compressed bitmap file. This type of graphic may be placed and scaled in some other application, but as it has a fixed resolution, doing so may cause some loss of image quality. Generally the JPEG format is preferred when your images contain photographic or artistic elements; otherwise the GIF format is usually much better.

Quality: when copying to a JPEG format, it is possible to choose the level of trade-off between quality and size of the graphic. The range is 1, lowest quality, smallest storage size to 100, highest quality, largest storage size. Typically, a value of 50 provides an adequate level of quality without using too much storage. If you are sending graphics that have a lot of detail and small text, you may wish to increase the quality, whereas if the graphic does not have much fine detail, and only has large glyphs, then you might be able to economize by decreasing the quality.

GIF: this will create a GIF file, which is a compressed bitmap file, without loss of clarity, allowing a maximum of 256 colours. Typically this type of file is very small and is especially well suited to sending over the internet and via email. The main exception is if the image you are sending contains a very large range of colours, such as you would find in a photographic image. In such cases, there would be a significant loss of colour depth and the JPEG format may be preferable

PDF: this will create a PDF file containing the graphic on a single page, the size of which is dictated by your default printer page size settings. This format is fully scalable, so is well suited for desktop publishing type requirements. This option automatically includes embedded astrological font glyphs inside the PDF file, to ensure full portability to other computers over the internet, for example

Special Options:
Include Captions: when copying to a Metafile or PDF format, it is possible to select whether or not the chart details and compliments text are included in the output. Sometimes, for desk top publishing requirements, it is preferable to have the chart on its own without any text, and for any captions to be added separately to the document

Monochrome: when copying to a Metafile or PDF format, it is possible to select whether or not the generated graphic should be in the currently displayed colour scheme, or in Monochrome, black lines and text only. As many publications are only in monochrome, this option makes it easy to ensure that the graphic is in an appropriate format.

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.How do I move the "Solar Fire User Files" Folder to another folder location?

At installation time, a user has the option of installing Solar Fire Gold program files to a different location. Solar Fire normally installs on the C drive, and we recommend that you do not change folders. However, we also recognise that there are many reasons why you might want to install Solar Fire Gold into a different location. (For example, it can be useful to install Solar Fire Gold into a different drive letter either in a separate partition on the same hard drive or to a separate hard drive altogether.)

If you decide to install our Solar Fire Gold program files to a different location, particularly a different drive letter, this raises the question as to how you can move the Solar Fire User Files folder as well. Together with an "Enter at Your Own Risk" or "For Advanced Users Only" caution, here are the steps:

Decide where you would like to move the "Solar Fire User Files" folder. For example, you could create a new folder path at this location on another drive letter: "F\Astrology\SF Gold"

Using Windows Explorer (right click on the start button then click on 'Explore') navigate to the following folder location:

Windows XP or earlier:
C:\Documents and Settings\<Login Name>\My Documents

Windows Vista or Windows 7:
C:\Users\<Login Name>\Documents

You should see the "Solar Fire User Files" folder located at this default folder.

Ensure that you can see both the "Solar Fire User Files" folder and the new location folder in your Windows Explorer. You may want to have the two windows open up, side by side.

You will now "drag and drop" the folder using the steps below:
Move your mouse cursor to the current "Solar Fire User Files" folder and when the folder is highlighted hold down the right hand mouse button while dragging the file towards its new folder location, keeping the right hand mouse button fully down while moving the mouse. When the new folder location is highlighted by the mouse cursor, release the right hand mouse button and you will see a small menu. Click on the "Move Here" menu item and the entire "Solar Fire User Files" folder with all of its files will be moved to the new location.

You now need to modify the SOLFIRE7.INI or SOLFIRE8.INI (depending on if you are working with v7 or v8) file located in the C:\Windows folder.

NOTE: For Windows XP and earlier operating systems, you can modify the INI file in place, however for Windows Vista or Windows 7 you cannot edit any file in the C:\Windows folder while the User Account is operating. For Windows Vista or Windows 7, you need to first copy the SOLFIRE7.INI or SOLFIRE8.INI file to another folder location, say C:\Users\\Documents, edit the file at that new location then move it back to C:\Windows enabling you to overwrite the existing one, if you have System Administrator rights

Since SOLFIRE7.INI or SOLFIRE8.INI is a text file, you can use your favourite text editor, like the Windows Notepad program. Open SOLFIRE7.INI or SOLFIRE8.INI in the text editor then under the "System DataPath=" entry at the top of the file, add a new line and type "UserFolder= where "the path>" is the new folder location of the "Solar Fire User Files" . Using the example above, you would type the following entry

UserFolder=F:Astrology\SF Gold\Solar Fire User Files\

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.Where are Chart Files stored in Solar Fire?

When Solar Fire Gold is first installed, it creates a set of original files in "C:\Program Files\SolarFire8\UserFiles\Charts"

When Solar Fire Gold starts up for the first time, it then creates a folder at: "C:\Users\<LoginName>\Documents\Solar Fire User Files\Charts"

And then copies the original files over to this folder. It is the "C:\Users\<LoginName>\Documents\Solar Fire User Files\Charts"

That is used for all access to and for saving new charts to the various chart files. The original files at "C:\Program Files\SolarFire8\User Files\Charts" are not a second chart file storage area. You should never put any files of any type in here, nor ever edit any files that are in this folder. (This is especially important if you have Windows Vista or Windows 7 because, on these operating systems, any files in any sub folder under "C:\Program Files" cannot be updated- the folder is effectively 'read only')

Should you ever need to restore any Solar Fire User Files to their original state, you can copy them from the Program Files folder to the folder in your Documents. So this is another reason to leave those in the Program Files unchanged.

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.How do I uninstall Solar Fire?

Hopefully you don't have to do this very often, but for technical reasons if you want to uninstall Solar Fire you can do so by following the steps below.

Click on Start, then click on the Control Panel, then scroll down the list and click on Add or Remove Programs.

Locate Solar Fire on the list of programs, click on it to highlight it, and then click on the Remove or Uninstall button.

This action will begin the uninstall process, when it has completed not all folders are deleted, so you now need to get into the Windows Explorer.

Right click on the Start button, then click on the Explorer item.

In the left hand pane click on the arrow in front of Local Disk C. Scroll down the list, look for Program Files and click on it. This action will open the folder in the right hand pane. Scroll down the list in the right hand pane, look for SolarFire 7 or SolarFire 8 (depending on which version you have), right click on it and then click Delete.

In the left hand pane again scroll down the list, look for the Windows folder and click on it. This action will open the folder in the right hand pane. Scroll down the list in the right hand pane, look for Solfire7 or Solfire8, right click on it and then click Delete.

You have now successfully uninstalled Solar Fire

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.How do I save my charts and data from Solar Fire onto a USB?

Start up Solar Fire. From the main menu screen, click on Utilities> Backup All user Files.

Select the USB drive letter by double clicking on it.

Under the drive letter, click on the make a new folder button and create a folder name e.g. My SF backup files. Click on this new folder, then click on the ok button, then confirm the next screen to begin saving all of your files.

Almost all things are saved such as; core charts, customised wheel styles, customised page layouts and customised interpretation text. Retained charts are not saved.

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.Can I use Solar Fire Gold on my Mac?

We do not officially support Solar Fire on the Mac, but we have a lot of customers who successfully use Solar Fire on a Mac equipped with an Intel chip, Windows and a Windows emulation program like Bootcamp, parallels, Virtual PC or Virtual box and VMWare Fusion. In addition to doing emulation, these various options isolate the Windows environment from the Mac environment so viruses can't jump from one side to the other.

Putting Windows on your Mac
All of the Windows emulations on a Mac require that you have a Windows disk and licence key (serial number) for Windows that you are currently using somewhere else. An old disk from an old derelict computer should work. Solar Fire will work on any Windows version from Windows 98 onwards, so you can use an old version of Windows with Virtual Box or Parallels. See below for details about the Windows requirements of the various emulator programs.

Using Virtual PC
The main problem we have had is with printers, especially Epson printers made for the Mac. There are possibly fixes for those problems on the Virtual PC website. When the Windows software says you need to control/click, in Virtual PC you have to press control/option/click instead.

Using Bootcamp
The Bootcamp method runs much faster than Virtual PC, but has some drawbacks. If you want to use Windows you have to restart your computer in Windows mode, and it might be more difficult or impossible to share files between the Macintosh part of your computer and the Windows part. However, Astrolabe has Solar Fire and Windows running on a Macbook laptop using Bootcamp, and it works great. Windows on Bootcamp runs as fast as or faster than it does on a regular PC. Here/s more info on Bootcamp:
http://news.com.com/FAQ+Windows+on+Macs/2100-1016_3-6058163.html?tag=nl

Bootcamp is included on new Intel OS-X macs, and there are installation instructions in the Macintosh help ( search for Bootcamp ) and also here:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/Boot_Camp_Install-Setup.pdf

It is easy to make a Windows partition, and you can change your mind later and easily take windows off again in a couple of minutes. With Bootcamp you need to load a full version of Windows XP or Vista. If possible XP rather than Vista. If you are installing an upgrade version of Windows, you can/t eject the upgrade cd when you are asked to insert the older Windows cd. However, if you have an external cd drive you can insert both cd/s at the same time and it will work. Put the older Windows disk in the external cd drive and just press Enter when the Windows install program asks you to insert the old cd. By the way, Bootcamp will make a Windows partition and format it for you, but you still have to let the Windows install program format it again or it won/t install properly. If you don/t use Windows much, then let it make the default a small sized Fat32 partition, which OS-X can also use. If you use Windows a lot, you might want to make a bigger partition and let Windows format it with ntfs.

Using Parallels
See our page on using Parallels: http://www.esotech.com.au/support/documents/SolarFireMacParallels.pdf

Using Virtual Box
Sun Microsystems sponsors a free emulation program called Virtual Box. Virtual Box lets you set up Windows inside a file on your hard disk, thus enabling you to run Windows on the Mac desktop. It is fairly fast, and it also works on Linux. Compared to Parallels, it/s only a little harder to set up, and it works quite well. You can find more information on Virtual Box at:
http://www.virtualbox.org/

The Virtual Box emulator wants to work with Windows XP or Vista. It will work on older Windows, but doesn’t/t have drivers for hi-res video. The following video driver can be used to load Windows ME and Solar Fire on Virtual Box:
http://www.xmarks.com/site/www.bearwindows.boot-land.net/vbe9x.htm

Using Crossover or Wine
Solar Fire will not work on the limited Windows emulator called Crossover.

Adapting the Mac/s mouse
If the wireless mouse made by Apple doesn’t/t work in Windows, you might have to use a wired USB mouse instead. If you just want to make the Apple/s mouse work like a PC/s 2 button mouse here is a link to a free program that should allow you to simulate a right click by using the Mac/s option ( control ) key:
http://www.geocities.com/pronto4u/applemouse.html
This works unless you need to control-click and drag all at the same time

Adapting the delete keys
On the Windows keyboard, the Delete key deletes the next character, and the Backspace key deletes the previous character. On the Mac keyboard, there is only a Delete key, and this deletes the previous character. If this bothers you, you can get a keyboard hotkey program and reprogram the Mac/s right hand Command key to be a Delete key that works like the Delete key on PC/s. the Command key on the Mac is the same as the Windows key in Windows.

Here's a link to a free hotkey program called Keytweak:
http://webpages.charter.net/krumsick/
If you use this program then click on button #62 and change it to say "Del"

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.Will Solar Fire work on a Linux operating system such as Debian, Fedora or Ubuntu? Do I need anything special, such as WINE, to run Solar Fire on my Linux computer?

Solar Fire was designed for Windows, and for that reason we do not officially support its use on Linux-based computers. Programs that work on Windows, in effect, contain instructions that Linux can't understand, and programs that work on Linux contain instructions that Windows cannot understand. And unlike Windows, there are dozens of different Linux types (called 'distros') in existence because they are open source...that means anyone can make changes in the operating system.

However, some people have been successful in using a 'translator' program to install and run Solar Fire on Linux. (Note: Because there are so many different distros of Linux, no one is an expert on them all, and just because they succeed in getting Solar Fire to run on one version of Linux (such as Kubuntu) doesn't mean it will run just as well on a different version (such as Redhat.)

So, while we cannot officially support the use of Solar Fire on Linux computers, here is some information on the two most common Translator Programs that have been used to get Solar Fire working on Linux:

VIRTUAL BOX

Sun Microsystems sponsors a free emulation program called Virtual Box. Virtual Box lets you set up Windows inside a file on your hard disk, thus enabling you to run Windows on Linux. You can find more information on Virtual Box at: http://www.virtualbox.org/

WINE

WINE makes it possible to run Windows programs alongside Linux by acting as a bridge between the program and the Linux operating system. When a Windows program tries to perform a function that Linux normally doesn't understand, WINE will translate that program's instructions into one supported by the Linux system. Some people have been successful at getting versions of Solar Fire as early as v5 working on their Linux computer.

Here is an excellent WINE USER GUIDE to teach you all about this tool: link

And on this page you can read about someone's success at installing Solar Fire version 7.0.6 onto a Linux computer: link

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.I own Solar Fire v5 (v6, v7) and have just purchased the upgrade to the latest Solar Fire and I want to know how do I update my Solar Fire Chart files?

If you have installed the latest Solar Fire onto your existing computer, then you simply need to import your Solar Fire chart files. You can do this by going to Utilities/Chart Import/Export on the main Solar Fire screen. This will take you to the Chart Conversion section of Solar Fire. From here you can locate your current Chart files and then Import.

If your old Solar Fire Chart files are on your old computer then we recommend that you transfer them to and from a USB key. You can save your Chart files on a USB key from the main menu screen. Click on Utilities> Backup All user Files.

Select the USB drive letter by double clicking on it.

Under the drive letter, click on the make a new folder button and create a folder name e.g. My SF backup files. Click on this new folder, then click on the ok button, then confirm the next screen to begin saving all of your files.

Almost all things are saved such as: core charts, customised wheel styles, customised page layouts and customised interpretation text. Retained charts are not saved. Once on your new computer with your new Solar Fire you can Import these files from the USB key from the same Utilities/Chart Import/Export menu item.

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.I am upgrading and installing my Solar Fire on to a new computer, will the upgrade install or do I need to uninstall my old version first?

Unlike other software, Solar Fire upgrades are complete and work as a new full software program. As a loyal Solar Fire user you pay an upgrade price, but you receive a totally new program. You may, of course, wish to back-up your Chart and User files and transfer them on to your new computer.

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.I have just purchased a Netbook and would like to use Solar Fire. Is this possible?

Solar Fire can be used on a Netbook in the following ways.
You can copy the entire Solar Fire CD onto a flash/usb drive.
Plug it into your Netbook USB port and then run setup.exe from that drive.
Setup can be run by using external CD/DVD drive.
If your Netbook has an Ethernet port, you can connect your Netbook to a network. Setup can then be run from a shared CD/DVD drive on a LAN computer.
If Netbook has wifi/wireless capabilities you can access a shared CD/DVD drive from another wireless device.
If Netbook has Bluetooth compatibility, you can use an external Bluetooth CD/DVD drive
All the files and folders from Solar Fire CD can be copied to Netbook and setup can be run.

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.Can Solar Fire be keyboard-driven?

By keyboard-driven, we assume you mean moving around the keyboard instead of using the mouse. You will be happy to know that it is possible to perform ALMOST all operations from the keyboard instead of the mouse if desired, and that there are various short-cut keys that enable some tasks to be invoked more quickly from the keyboard than by using the mouse.

If you check the Solar Fire User Guide section beginning with 4.6 (which should begin on page 18) you will get a thorough idea about all you can do with the keyboard.

What's more, Solar Fire has the ability to record a set of steps as a form of macro, allowing you to run the whole procedure over and over once recorded without having to repeat each step manually.

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.I backed up all of my Solar Fire charts, data, folders, and other files onto an external drive, and just installed Solar Fire onto my new computer. How do I import those charts into Solar Fire so I can access them?

If the Solar Fire version you installed on your new computer is the same as the version on your old computer, or if the version on the old computer is not a lot older than the version on your new computer, the process is quite easy.

  1. Make sure the drive with the backed up files, whether it is a flash drive, thumb drive, or other external hard drive, is connected to your new computer, and make sure that the new computer can see the drive. You want to be able to see those files in order to properly move them into Solar Fire.
  2. Open a Windows Explorer screen (there are a number of ways to open Windows Explorer, but probably the easiest is to double-click your Computer or My Computer icon.) Now find the drive that is your external drive (it may be drive E, or F, or some other letter after C), navigate the left hand pane to the backup folder where you saved your charts, data, folders and files. If you click on the backup folder name on the left hand pane, you should see these folders and files listed on the right hand pane.
  3. Next, start up Solar Fire, then from the top of the main screen, click on utilities..
  4. Click on Open User Files Folder
  5. A second Windows Explorer screen should open showing the folders you will be moving the saved files into. Note that it will be in your Documents or My Documents folder
  6. Do you want to copy all of your backed up files into Solar Fire, or only your Chart files?
    1. All of your backed-up files: On the first Windows Explorer screen, with your backup folder highlighted on the left hand pane and the folders and files displaying in the right hand pane, press Ctrl+A keys together on the keyboard to highlight all of the backup folders and files. Moving the mouse over any of these highlighted files, hold down the right mouse button and with the right mouse button still held down, drag these folders and files over to the second Windows Explorer screen, such that when the mouse pointer is over Solar Fire User Files, it is highlighted. At this point release the right mouse button and you will see a small menu– click on the Copy Here item, and all of your backed up folders and files will be copied over. (You will most likely need to click on the Yes to All button when it pops up to overwrite existing folders and files.) Your charts will go into the Charts file, your aspect sets will go into the Aspects file, etc.
    2. Only the Chart files: On the first Windows Explorer screen, find the Charts folder in your backed-up files in the right hand pane, right click on it to highlight it, hold down the right mouse button and with the right mouse button still held down, drag the Charts folder over to the second Windows Explorer screen until it is lined up approximately on the Charts folder in there, and release the right mouse button. All of your Charts will now be in Solar Fire. (If it asks you to, click Yes to All button when it pops up to overwrite existing folders and files.)

Note: Using this Drop and Drag method you can copy all files and folders in one go or copy them one folder or file at a time.


If you backed up all of your chart files, and other user files, to a thumb drive, or to folders on your hard drive, you shouldn't need to use the import utility UNLESS the files are from an older version and they need to be converted to the new version. If you look at the Help file that comes with Solar Fire, it mentions: To restore your backup user files
Copy the files from their backup location into the Solar Fire User Files folder. So for example, in the folder on your thumb drive, you should have a User file called Charts. You simply copy ALL of the files from that Charts file into the like-named Charts file in the User Files on your new computer. Likewise you can do this with Aspect files, Page files, and other User files. Solar Fire should then have no trouble using your files in the new installation. On the other hand, if your chart files are from a much older installation, and the new computer has an upgraded version of Solar Fire, the input utility is great for converting the older files to the new version of Solar Fire.

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.Can I share charts between Solar Fire and Imperial Astrologer?

Yes, you can both open your Solar Fire charts from Imperial Astrologer, and also open Imperial Astrologer charts in Solar Fire.

Opening Solar Fire charts from Imperial Astrologer

  1. Click Start, then Open
  2. Click File (not the arrow next to it)
  3. Now you need to find your Solar Fire chart files. They will be in a folder in your Solar Fire User Files called Charts. You can find this:
    In Windows XP they are usually found in: C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\MyDocuments\Solar Fire User Files
    In Windows Vista they are usually found in: C:\Users\UserName\Documents\Solar Fire User Files
    In Windows 7 they are usually found in: C:\Users\UserName\Documents\Solar Fire User Files
    (Where it says UserName, that would normally be the name you use to log into the computer.)
  4. When you click on Charts, you will see all of your Solar Fire chart files. Click on any one of them and it will open it in Imperial Astrologer. Then, the next time you look for your chart files in Imperial Astrologer, you will see all of your Solar Fire charts

Opening Imperial Astrologer charts from Solar Fire is pretty much the reverse with a few slight differences

  1. Click Chart and then Open
  2. Click on File, not the arrow next to File
  3. In the screen that opens, click Folder, not the arrow next to Folder. This will initially show you the folder where your Solar Fire charts are kept, but we are going to go somewhere else from there.
  4. Click on you’re the folder with C:\ which will show you all your primary folders
  5. Now drag the bar on the right down until you find Imperial Astrologer and click on that. You will then see Famous.SFcht open in the area above. Double click on that and you will have opened Imperial Astrologer charts in Solar Fire.
  6. To return either of those back to the original set of charts (Imperial Astrologer charts to Imperial Astrologer, Solar Fire Charts to Solar Fire) just follow the same steps in reverse.

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.How do I copy my Solar Fire charts and pages to my publishing program?

To achieve sending a Solar Fire chart image from the Clipboard to the Microsoft Publisher, follow these steps:

  1. Within Solar Fire, get up to the point where you are displaying your required chart on the "View Chart" screen, using your required page layout.
  2. On that screen, click on the "Copy/Send" button then click on the "Clipboard" Destination then click on the "Metafile (*.wmf)" Output File Type then click on the "OK" button. This action copies this page layout to the Clipboard in Metafile format.
  3. Start up your Microsoft Publisher program and get to a blank page. If the page layout you selected in Solar Fire was in a landscape format then click on File -> Page Setup menu items, click on the "Landscape" option then click on the "OK" button
  4. I would now set your page layout guides. Click on Arrange -> Layout Guides menu items and set the Left, Right, Top, Bottom margins to 1cm and click on the "OK" button
  5. With the image still in the Clipboard, click on the Edit -> Paste menu items and your Solar Fire chart image will be put onto the page in a smaller frame
  6. Hold down the "Ctrl" key on the keyboard then, using the mouse, grab one of the corner anchors of the image and re-size the image to fill the page.
  7. Finally, you can click on the File -> Save As menu items to save that publication or click on File -> Print menu items to print it out. NOTE: The "Metafile (*.wmf)" setting in Solar Fire yields a much better image quality for than the "Bitmap (*.bmp)" setting. Neville Lang Technical Support.

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. Can I transfer ownership of my Solar Fire to my partner or friend, or sell my copy second-hand?

The short answer is "no". Please note that once a software license is registered in a person's name it is not transferable. This means that upgrades and technical support are available only to registered users. When purchasing software please ensure that the correct name is registered. We also have a policy of No Refunds.

Astrolabe Inc. and Esoteric Technologies Pty Ltd have put this page together to share information on the issue of software piracy and the impact on both of our companies as well as on our valued customers.

As noted by the Business Software Alliance (www.bsa.org)

"Quite simply, to make or download unauthorized copies of software is to break the law, no matter how many copies are involved. Whether you are casually making a few copies for friends, loaning disks, distributing and/or downloading pirated software via the Internet, or buying a single software program and then installing it on 100 of your company's personal computers, you are committing a copyright infringement. It doesn't matter if you are doing it to make money or not - if you or your company is caught copying software, you may be held liable under both civil and criminal law.

Apart from legal consequences, using copied or counterfeit software also means:

- Greater exposure to software viruses, corrupt disks, or otherwise defective software
- Inadequate or no documentation
- No warranties
- Lack of technical product support available to properly licensed users
- Ineligibility for software upgrades offered to properly licensed users
- Customers receive the best value for their software by purchasing legally obtained software programs that qualify them for product updates and special offers directly from Astrolabe, Inc. and Esoteric Technologies. Developing new software takes many months of time, testing and documentation. To continue to supply astrologers with top-grade astrology software, its makers need to recoup costs and keep staff on hand to give service and technical support.
- If you are not sure if you have a legal copy of our products or have questions about whether an Astrolabe or Esoteric product you are considering buying is legal, please contact us.
- If you need additional licenses, learn more about volume licensing.

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Features

. Why does the newspaper give me a different time for an eclipse than Solar Fire does?

Part of the problem is that there are a number of different ways to view eclipse times, and a number of different phases of the eclipse itself.  Newspapers, when they do report eclipse times correctly (and they don't always) refer to astronomical times, which are not necessarily the same as astrological times (we'll talk about astrological in a minute.) Some report the time that the total eclipse is over, but ignore the fact that there is still a partial eclipse going on, while some refer to the moment when  the partial eclipse ends, stating that as though it is the significant time.  Some show both.

Astronomical Eclipses

Astronomers don't pay attention to the zodiac when they mention eclipse times.  The three most commonly referenced eclipse times amongst astronomers are:
The Equatorial Conjunction of Sun and Moon in Right Ascension (measured in hours/minutes/seconds along a circle that begins at the Vernal Equinox,  with one hour being equal to 1/24th of the way around the sky) and Declination (how far north or south of the Celestial Equator a point is.) Two planets can be in the same Right Ascension, but a different Zodicacal Longitude, and so they will be in conjunction astronomically but not Zodiacally.

The Ecliptic Conjunction of Sun and Moon in Ecliptic Longitude (measured in degrees/minutes/seconds along a circle called the Ecliptic that begins at the Vernal Equinox), and Latitude (how far north or south of the Ecliptic a point is.) This sounds very similar to what astrologers use, except they use an equinox on a fixed date, so you may see J2000 (meaning where the equinox occurred in the year 2000), or J1950 (where it occurred in 1950.) 

The instant of Greatest Eclipse, which is the visual one, being the moment when the axis of the Moon's shadow cone passes closest to the Earth's centre.  Another way to say this would be the time when the greatest amount of the Moon that will be blocking the Sun occurs, so in a total eclipse, the moment of totality.  This is the time you would usually want to know if you are planning to watch a Solar Eclipse using those special blackened thick lenses.

These three separate unions of the Sun and Moon for any given eclipse can span a period of 5, 10, 15 minutes or even more.

There is no universal agreement as to which of the above the news media reports as the exact moment of an eclipse, so you may find one news source giving one of the first two times, while others will use the third one.  And even if they use the third one, they don't always get it right, because the time of the Greatest Eclipse must be adjusted based on local time.  This is not the place to go into detail about time zones, but suffice it to say that the celestial time is only accurate around the middle of a time zone.

If I am on, say the far eastern coast of Australia around Sydney, and my colleague is on the western side of New South Wales, say in Mildura, as we look at the skies, he will see the eclipse start, reach totality, and end, at a different time then I will

Astrological Eclipses

Astrologers view the exact moment of a Solar eclipse as the moment when the Sun and Moon reach the exact degree/minute/second in the Zodiac.  Tropical Astrologers start their zodiac at a similar point to the ecliptic that astronomers do, and that is the Equinox, but the difference is that this starting point shifts about 1 degree every 72 years.  So in order to convert an astronomical ecliptic conjunction to a zodiacal ecliptic conjunction, you need to know which Equinox year the astronomers are using. 

So an astrologer will say the eclipse is exact when it reaches a specific zodiacal position, for instance 23 degrees 15 minutes 30 seconds of the sign _.  While this eclipse can be exact astrologically, it may be quite far from being exact visually, as well as occurring at a different time than the astronomical Right Ascension or Ecliptic conjunction occur.

Accepting that the astrological eclipse times may be different than those the astronomers, will still see astrologers come up with different times for the exact eclipse because they use different algorithms to calculate the moment. 

Solar Fire uses the most widely accepted algorithm to calculate the exact moment of each eclipse, and you will find it is the one used by most of the astrological software programs available today. 

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.How do I find a Super Moon in Solar Fire?

"Super Moon" is a term coined by Richard Nolle and is an effect that coincides when a Full Moon occurs at the same time as the Moon is physically closer to Earth in its orbit - its perigee. (Super Moons, on a physically level, cause higher than normal king tides and put more pressure on the Earth's crust. (Moon closer to Earth at this time and can lead to more earth tremors or earthquakes. - Neville Lang)

Solar Fire has never been able to display the distances the Moon is from the Earth, even in Distance column of the flexible points list, so users have never been able to check for perigee and apogee of the Moon. But a way around this is to use the Black Moon point.

The Black Moon is the point where the Moon is furthest from the Earth, so when the Moon is opposite the Black Moon, it is at its perigee position, i.e. closest to Earth. Using the Electional Search module, you only need to search for two conditions - Moon opposite Sun AND Moon opposite Black Moon, using the orbs in the STANDARD file for the search.

Example: Do an Electional search on this combination from 1 Jan 2008 until 1 Jan 2011 and, using Robina as the location, you will find 2 matches - 12/13 December 2008 and 30/31 January 2010. These match with the Super Moons listed on Richard Nolle's website. You can firm up the exact position by using the Animate Chart feature. For example, in Robina, the next Super Moon occurs at 4.17 pm (AEST) 30 Jan 2010.

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.How do I create a Duad or Dwad chart in Solar Fire?

Duad, Dwad, Dwadasama or Dwadachamsha is a twelve-fold subdivision of the signs (each composed of 2 1/2*) developed by Hindu astrologers. The first duad of each sign is sub-ruled by the natural planetary ruler of the sign; the second duad is sub-ruled by the ruler of next sign in the zodiac and so on. These 'signs within a sign,' by virtue of their planetary rulers, account for subtle shadings of expression found in different degrees of the same sign.

Here are the steps to create a Duad chart in Solar Fire:
- Calculate your Natal Chart
- Go to Chart/Vedic/D12 Dwadashamsha.
- Select and Click OK
- If you calculated your Natal Chart using the Tropical Zodiac then you will be asked if you want to change the Zodiac. Click NO
- The chart created is the equivalent of Duads which means that each sign of the Zodiac has been divided into twelve 2degree30minutes sections.

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.I am wondering how to run a report that shows when planets go out of bounds and for how long?

One way to do this is in Solar Fire's Page Designer. Out of bounds planets can be seen in any page that has a "list format" object with declination as one of the columns in the list e.g. Points List - flexible, Asteroid List - flexible.

When one of these objects is added to a page, click on the object to select it, then click on the Columns button at top left of the list and select "Declination (mins)" as a column. While you're in the columns selection dialog box, also select the "Declination (mins)" column as the column to sort the list by. Save and select the page to use in the View Chart window.

This list will contain the declinations of all the current points etc., with the declinations sorted. Any points with declinations out of bounds will be coloured a bright magenta and will be either at the top and/or bottom of the list.

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.How do I change Time Zone details in Solar Fire?

  1. Select the required entry on the list of available zone tables
  2. Click on the Edit... button. This will display the "Edit Time Zone Table" dialog displaying the data for the current zone table.
      >> To set the title and other options
    1. Enter a Table Name - preferably a name that is descriptive of the locations to which this table applies.
    2. Optionally select the Next Table - From the Next Table drop-down list, select any other existing table that should be used for dates following the last date in the current table.
      In most cases you will want to leave this set to "None".
    3. Set the verification message option - If the time zones in this table are likely to continue changing regularly after the last entry in the table, then you may choose to have Solar Fire issue a warning message for charts with dates beyond the last entry in this table. If you want to see such messages, ensure that this option is checked.

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.How Do I create different dials in Solar Fire?

Here is how you can create the dials:
* Start up SFv8 (or SFv7.3.1)
* Click on Chart Options > Dial Styles > UniDial to see the Dial Design screen
* Click on the existing Dial225.di1 file to highlight it
* Click on the "Copy" button then give the new dial style a name, like "Dial24", then click on the "Save" button, and this new style will be added to the list
* Next, click on the "Edit" button (the new dial highlighted in the list) and the Property list will be displayed
* Simply change the "Dial Degrees" from the existing 22.5 to 24 (or 120)
* Click on the "File" menu item then click on the "Save" menu item then exit out of the designer and you have your new Dial style

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.How do I change the Decan Rulerships in Solar Fire?

Decan rulers can be changed in SF v7.3.1 (and SFv8). To modify the assignments, click on Utilities > Edit Rulers/Weightings... and in the top half of this screen, you can change the rulerships. Just know that the present rulerships seem to be OK unless you have a very special case for a client.

The Modern rulerships for Decans can be seen on the Level 1 dropdown (the default), and you can read them off the dropdowns for the 1st Decan, 2nd Decan and 3rd decan, after clicking on each sign. The Traditional decan rulers are on Level 2 so if you now change the dropdown from Level 1 to Level 2, you will see that both the "Name of Set" and "Menu Name" changes from "Modern" to "Traditional" and again you can read off the traditional decan assignments.

For example, if you click on Pisces for Level 1 (Modern), you will see Neptune, Moon, and Pluto as the decan rulers. If you now change the level to Level 2 (Traditional) then you will see Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars as the decan rulers.

You will notice that there are also Level 3 for Esoteric rulerships, Level 4 for Hierarchical rulerships, and a relatively new one, Level 5, for the Nakshatra assignments, which is the one used in SFv8. Though Level 5 was available in SFv7.3.1, there was no wheel style for it to display the nakshatras but there is now in SFv8.

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.Does Solar Fire have the point Lilith?

There are three points that have the name Lilith - the Black Moon Lilith, the asteroid Lilith and the Dark Moon Lilith. Some people prefer one over the other two, and there are those that use all three, which is why Solar Fire has all them all.

The Black Moon is one of the chart points which may be displayed in any chart or grid also sometimes known as the Black Moon Lilith and is popular in Europe. This point is the empty focal point of the Moons orbit around the earth, which is also the apogee of the Moons orbit. The speed based on an orbital period of 3231.45 days. It is possible to select the Black Moon as either the true (osculating) apogee or the mean apogee in the Preferences section of Solar Fire.

True Apogee - is the position of the moon's apogee, taking into account short term fluctuations (osculations) in the plane of the moons orbit.

Mean Apogee - is the position of the moon's apogee according to a mathematical formula which ignores many of the minor perturbations in its orbit.

The selected Black Moon type is not saved with a chart - it is only applied when a chart is being calculated.

The asteroid Lilith - asteroid number 1181 - comes with the 1000 Asteroids in Solar Fire Gold

The Dark Moon Lilith a possible second satellite of the earth (not confirmed by modern astronomy), as first postulated by Waltemath, and written about by Delphine Jay. This can be found in the Jayne Hypotheticals Extra Points file in Solar Fire.

As a point of interest Solar Fire also includes Selena, also known as the White Moon which is also popular in Europe. It has a perfectly circular hypothetical orbit.

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.Please could you clarify the use of interpretations in Solar Fire and Solar Writer? Can I use these interpretations in my client work and can I edit the text?

The interpretations text in Solar Fire and Solar Writer have been provided for personal and professional use within these astrology software programs. As such you may use the text for your friends, family and clients as long as you are using the software to generate each report. You cannot, for instance, take the text and use it from another program or directly on a web site. This would be breach of use.

You may edit the text, as long as you keep the copyright notice. You may also remove the supplied illustrations and use your own within the software. In fact we hope that you will customise your reports in a way that reflect your own style. Our aim is to support your astrology work and provide you with a wonderful tool for your satisfaction.

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. Can Solar Fire display and print European characters, like ä ?

For displaying and printing European characters in Solar Fire Gold (any version really), the user will need to change the font setting in Solar Fire Gold. On the menu Chart Options > Fonts, the defaults are "ET Sans Serif 2" and "ET Symbol 2" for Screen and Printer fonts respectively. It is best to change these fonts to "MS Sans Serif" and "Arial" (for Screen and Print fonts) so that any European characters, entered by the user, in a Name or Place may easily be displayed and/or printed.

For example, the user might type in "Gerhardt Schroeeder" born in "Muenchen, Germany". Using the method above, this name and place can be displayed and printed. Saving a chart will also save these European characters and they reappear when the user opens the chart at another time.

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. How can I see the Centaurs displayed on charts in Solar Fire?

We have had several requests to be able to view Pholus and Nessus on a wheel as well as seeing aspects to them in the Reports > Asteroids report.

In Solar Fire 7 and 8, you can achieve this by using the Extra Ring Points feature of Solar Fire. plus some new chart wheels. In Solar Fire 8 you can put the Centaurs into any chart as User defined points. We will talk about these two methods separately.

EXTRA RING POINTS

First you need to make some setup changes, as follows:

  1. Start up Solar Fire
  2. Click on "Chart Options" menu item then click on the "Extra Ring Points..." item. You will see a list of Extra Ring Points files already setup. However, you will probably need to now setup a new one for your specific needs.
  3. Click on the "Create" button and enter a filename, something like "MyExtras" and a MyExtras.pte file will be added to the list of files and highlighted
  4. Click on the "Edit" button and you should see that the "Selected Points" column on the left-hand side should be blank
  5. On the right-hand side, click on the "Asteroid" option in the "Point Type" section then click on the "Select File" button in that same section. On the resulting list of Asteroid files, locate and click on the CENTAURS.AST file and click on the "Select" button. A list of the centaurs will display in the column headed "Available Points"
  6. Click on Nessus then click on the "<- Add" button below that list, and this action will put Nessus in the "Selected Points" column. Do the same for Pholus.
  7. Now, click on the "Save" button then the "Select" button on the previous screen and these actions will now complete the definition and selection of the Extra Ring Points file

To display these extra points on a wheel, do the following:

  1. On the main screen of Solar Fire, open a natal chart and have it highlighted on the "Calculated Charts" list
  2. Click on the "View" menu item then click on the "Page Topic Index..." item to see a list of page topics. Locate the "Basic" category and double-click on it to see the items under that category
  3. On the list, locate the entry "Wheel with extra points [Uniextr4.wh1] [uniextra2.pag]" and double-click on it. You will now see a wheel with the regular planets in the centre, as usual, and the extra points, Nessus and Pholus in your case, around the outside

For a BiWheel, such as looking at a natal chart with the current transits around the outside, and to also see the extra points for both of these charts, you need to do the following:

  1. On the main screen of Solar Fire, you should have a natal chart already opened on the "Calculated Charts" list. Now, create the current transit chart using Chart > New, so that it now also displays on the "Calculated Charts" list
  2. With the two charts now on the Calculated Charts" list, hold the "Ctrl" key down on the keyboard and click on the natal chart then the transit chart so that both charts are now highlighted on the "Calculated Charts" list
  3. You now need to setup your BiWheel for the new type of chart showing the "extras". Click on the "Chart Options" menu item then click on the "Wheel Styles" item then click on the "BiWheel..." item to see a list of files
  4. Click on the "BiExtra1.WH2" file to highlight it and then click on the "Select" button
  5. Finally, click on the "View" menu item then click on the "BiWheel" item and your new BiWheel will display both charts and include the extra ring points on both wheels.

USER DEFINED POINTS
Previous versions of Solar Fire enabled you to put a few additional bodies in the astrological chart along with the planets: Chiron, Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta, Hygeia, Astraea, Eris and Sedna, or to put your choice of additional bodies in an extra ring. Solar Fire 8 has added a way to put up to 50 additional bodies in a chart at any time, and in fact the latest version comes with 89 asteroid, Centaur and Outer Planet glyphs. Let's go through the steps.

INSTALL THE FONT
First, you need to make sure that the updated EtAst1.ttf font is installed on your system. When you install the latest version of Solar Fire it puts the font in the Solar Fire file so the program can use it, but we also need to give Windows access to it.
1. Find the file EtAst1 font.
a. In 32 bit Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 it should be in C:\Program Files\SolarFire8
b. In 64 bit Windows Vista or Windows 7 it should be in C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarFire8.
2. Now, how you install the font depends on your version of Windows.
a. In Windows Vista or Windows 7 you can right click on the font and you should see the option to install the font. Click to install. If it tells you there already is a copy installed, say ok to replace it with this one.
b. In Windows XP you need to go to your Font folder first. Open Control Panel, Double Click on the Fonts folder, click File, click Install New Font, then go to the location above where you found ETAst1.ttf and you can then install that font file. If it tells you there already is a copy installed, say ok to replace it with this one.
3. Now you should be able to add the new glyphs.

USING THE NEW GLYPHS

  1. Open Solar Fire v8, and then open a chart that you want to work on
  2. Right click in any open area in the chart and click Displayed User-defined points from the menu.
  3. This will open the File Management box, and you will see that Solar Fire comes with a few options already created. The best place to start is to click on AstGlyphs.ptu as this is already pre-set with 50 of the glyphs. If you double click on that, you will see those 50 appear in the chart.
  4. Now that you have looked at one of the included ones, it is time to make one that shows the asteroids of your choice. (Remember, you can only show 50 of the 89.)
    Right click again in the chart, again click Displayed User-defined points.
  5. First, let's use the previous AstGlyphs.ptu as a model. (Later I'll show you how to create an asteroid list from scratch.) Click on it to highlight it and then click on the Copy button.
    1. This will then ask you to come up with a name for your new file, that will be an exact copy of AstGlyphs.ptu
    2. In this example I will call it AstGlyphs2.ptu. Once you have named it, click the Save button.
    3. Now you will see your new option in the list. Make sure it is highlighted and then click the Edit button:
    4. You will now see a new window which shows, on both sides, all of the glyphs currently in this option. It is here tiwhere you will be able to take out the ones you don't want, and add new ones.
    5. Before we go any further, I need to call your attenon to a few sections of this screen.
      1. Let's start at the bottom left:
        1. The section called Glyph/s will currently have the symbol of whichever asteroid you have highlighted on the left side of the screen. This is where you will be putting the symbol for another asteroid.
        2. To the left of that is a little arrow. That is what you will choose to search for the asteroid's symbol on the font.
        3. Below that is the Font button (for now you can ignore that), and the name of the font that has the new Asteroid glyphs you will be looking for. (If it says ET Symbol 3 or something similar, don't worry. I'll tell you how to change it to ET Asteroid 1 a bit later.)
      2. Now look at the right side of the screen.
        1. Note that Asteroid is checked for the Point Type. Leave that as it is.
        2. The Select File button is very important. Right now it only has a file called AstGlyphs. If you want to include other asteroids that are not in this list, you will be using that Select File button in a moment. But before you do:
      3. Let's decide which, if any, of the asteroids already in the list you don't want and remove them. Remember, this is a copy of the original so you can take any/most/all of them out and put others in their place without hurting the original.
        1. One by one, click on the ones on the left side (Selected Points) that you don't want and click the delete button. This will remove them from your option.

      4. Now it is time to add new ones. Now click on that Select File button I mentioned above.
      5. The File Management window will come up. Click the Create button as you are going to make a new file for the asteroids you want that are not in AstGlyphs.ast
      6. Give the file a name in the new window. I'm going to call mine AstGlyphs2. Then click OK
      7. You will now have a new window, and on the right side will be all of the asteroids you currently have available in Solar Fire. You can choose any you want, but remember, there are only 89 glyphs in Solar Fire so if you choose an asteroid without a glyph it will show up as A, B, etc.
      8. Find the ones you want, one by one, and as you click on it, a copy of it will go to the left side.
      9. Once you have all the ones you want, click the Save button. This will take you back to the File Management window. Important: make sure your newly named file is highlighted before you go to the next step.
      10. Now click the Select button. This will take you back to this screen. Note it has the name of your new file under the Select File button, and the asteroids you chose will be on the list on the right (Available Points):
      11. Now, click on the first of your new asteroids and then click the Add button. This will copy it to the left side of the screen. But note that there is no symbol in the Glyphs/s window, just a letter a. And also note the name of the Font. If it something other than ET Asteroid 1, take time to click the Font button now.
        1. Scroll through the list of fonts, find ET Asteroid 1, click to highlight it, then click OK
        2. Now you should have the correct font in the Font box. (Don't click any of the other asteroids right now, let's just work on you're the one you've selected.)

      12. Click on the arrow to the right of that letter and it will open up the font with all of the available asteroid glyphs. If for any reason it does not say ET Asteroid 1 at the top, you can pull the dropdown arrow next to it until you find that font, then click on it.
      13. Now, you need to find the symbol for your first asteroid and click on it. Let's say you want to click on the Centaur Chariklo. When you do you will see how it jumps off the page.
      14. Next, click the Select button and notice how it fills the window. Then click the Copy button which puts it on an invisible clipboard
      15. Now, click the x at the top right of the Character Map to return to the previous screen. Make sure you still see ET Asteroid 1 in the Font area. Highlight the letter a next to Glyph/s and delete the letter a. Don't click outside of that box because the next step requires you to still be in the Font box.
      16. Now hold the CTRL key down with one hand and press the letter V key with the other hand, this will paste the glyph you just copied in place of that letter a
        (If you don't see the glyph, try repeating the above process to make sure you didn't miss a step.)
      17. Once you are sure you have your first glyph showing, go back to step xi and choose the next of your new asteroids and follow the steps to capture their glyph(s).
      18. Once you are done, click the Save button. Then the Select button. And now all of your chosen glyphs will be in the chart.


Now we did all of that by starting with the previous asteroid group, AstGlyphs.ptu, and making a copy of it. You can also make a list from scratch.

Go back up to step V and instead of Copy, click Create. This will give you a screen that says Create New File. In the File Name area, name your new file, whatever you'd like. (If there is already a name in their, you can delete it and write the name of your choice.) Then click OK, and you will see the new name on the File Management screen.

Click the Edit button, and notice there are no Selected Points. In the Point Type, click Asteroid, and then click the Select File button.

You will get another File Management screen. Again click Create.

You will get another Create File screen, this one containing the name you recently created. Keep that name so you can create a new file to draw upon then click OK:
You will then get a screen where you can choose the asteroids you'd like to use.

From here, it is the same procedure you followed beginning at e, section vii

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.Can Solar Fire help me calculate Draconic charts?

Regular Tropical astrology has the zodiac beginning with the zero degree of Aries as the point of the Vernal Equinox. The Draconic Zodiac is another reference for plotting the chart but instead of starting 0 degrees Aries at the equinox as the does, 0 Aries begins at the Moon's North Node.

Your Solar Fire can certainly help you with draconic charts, and save you a lot of time. Here are the steps you need to run a draconic chart using Solar Fire:

  1. Enter a new chart or open an existing chart of a person so that the chart is listed on the Calculated Charts List. This chart will be your "normal" chart - one that you are already familiar with in tropical or western astrology.
  2. With the Calculated Charts List displaying, right-click on this chart entry (it is likely to be highlighted) to display a menu then click on the "Edit" item then click on the "Copy & Edit Chart..." item. This action will display a New Chart Data Entry screen ready for editing.
  3. You will see the details for the person already entered so all you need to do is to change the Zodiac setting. You do this by clicking on the down arrow next to the Zodiac that is currently displaying (likely to be Tropical). Scroll down this list of zodiacs until you locate "Draconic" and click on it to select it.
  4. Click on the "OK" button and this new chart with the Draconic zodiac will be placed on the Calculated Charts List. As you will see from the Preview wheel, the Moon's North Node is set to 0* Aries - the beginning of the draconic zodiac.
  5. From here you can simply double-click on that new entry on the Calculated Charts List and this action will display this chart in a single wheel on your Solar Fire's default page layout.
  6. Pamela A. F. Crane's "Draconic Astrology" book displays both the "normal" tropical chart and the draconic chart around a zodiac wheel, the "normal" on the inside and the draconic one on the outside. You can do this too with Solar Fire. To do this, get back to the Calculated Charts List then highlight both your "normal" chart and your draconic chart by first holding down the "Ctrl" key on the keyboard and then click on each of these two charts to highlight them. Now release the "Ctrl" key.
  7. Click on the "View" menu item on the menu bar at the top of that screen then click on the "BiWheel..." option to display the two charts. NOTE: if your "normal" chart is not the inside one then simply click on the "Swap" button to make it so.
  8. Finally, we need to select a BiWheel layout that displays both charts around a zodiac wheel. To do this, click on the "Wheel Style" button and you will see a list of possible BiWheel options. Click on the TRANSITS2.WH2 entry then click on the "Select" button. This action will now display the two charts in a somewhat similar fashion to the charts shown in Pamela Crane's book. Neville Lang Technical Support.

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.How do I add to ACS PC ATLAS other places (I mean to add to the existing database, not to create new one)

You cannot add places the ACS Atlas from within Solar Fire, but you CAN add your own places to the ACS Atlas by using the Atlas program that is installed with the atlas itself. This program Is called ACSATLAS.EXE, and you can find it in the ACS atlas folder (usually called ATLAS or PCATLAS). When you run this, you will see that there are menu options to add or delete places. The help file for this program contains more information if you need it. Graham Dawson Co-Author

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. Can a logo be added to the objects list of the page editor or is there any other way that a logo can be added to the printouts of Solarfire?

Yes, it is possible to add a logo as a graphic to a page design, both for viewing on the screen and as a print-out. In SFv4 this may be any file of type *.bmp, *.wmf. In SFv5 it may also be *.jpg, *.ico, *.gif, *.emf. In Solar Fire v4 the graphic has to be first copied into the Solar Fire directory. However, starting with SF5 the graphic can be selected from any location on the computer. The process is: Edit Page Insert New Object Choose Graphical/Graphic from the list and Insert (and move and size as required) Highlight Graphic File in the white dialog box Click on the arrow at the top of the list Choose your graphic from a file with the Select Graphic File box.

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.This is just a quick query and I am sure I should know this or at least know where to look it up: On a chart for 6 1 1572 "OS" comes up next to the date. On a chart for 5 1 1893 "NS" comes up. What does OS and NS stand for?

NS = New Style Calendar = Gregorian Calendar OS = Old Style Calendar = Julian Calendar The best place to get a full description of the calendar types is in the manual or online help file (e.g. look in the index under "Dates / entering" and see the section titled "Modern and Old Calendars").

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.Why is my Part of Fortune in a different position compared to some other program's that I have used in the past?

Solar Fire gives you the option to use different calculations for the Part of Fortune, You can choose the formula that has been used in the past or you can choose the formula that is becoming more popular as traditional astrology spreads its influence. This formula takes into consideration whether or your chart is nocturnal or diurnal and applies a different formula for each. You can your choir under Solar Fire's Preferences menu on the front screen.

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.Is there some way to search for hits by declination in SF? For example, if the Moon were at 2 north, can I search the database for natal charts that have planets at that position?

The following will procedure will find all the people from your selected database(s) who have one or more natal planets around the same degree of declination as your selected body. For this example, we will use the Moon as the selected body.

  1. Click Chart in the upper left of Solar Fire, then choose Chart Search from the menu. This will bring up the Chart Search screen
  2. Under Chart Files to Search, select all the databases you want to search. Before you choose anything else, go to the bottom right and choose an Aspect Set that contains both Parallels and Conjunctions. (Your Aspect set must include both Parallels and Conjunctions in order for this to work properly.) Standard is a good choice.
  3. Next, under Search Condition Selection, choose In Aspect.
  4. For the Point or Cusp choose your selected body.
  5. For In, choose Parallel.
  6. For With, choose one of the other points --- you are going to repeat this part of the procedure with each point you will be using so you may want to do them in some type of order so you don't forget any, but the order is not important to the final result.
  7. Now click Add, and you will notice that combination now shows on the left under List of Search Conditions after the word Find.
  8. Repeat this with each other body you want to include, but with one added step for each after the first one.
  9. Once you have clicked to Add, and the combo has moved over to List of Search Conditions, you will see that it now the word AND in front of your aspect. You need to change it to OR. So if you highlight the combo (such as Moon parallel Mercury) and then press the And/Or button, it will change it to an OR in front of your aspect combo.
  10. Once you have finished all of the points which you want to include, you will need to add two more filters. Go back to Search Condition Selection and choose Coordinates.
  11. For the Point or Cusp, again choose the main body you selected.
  12. For Coordinate type choose Declination.
  13. For Comparison Type choose >= (greater than or equal to).
  14. And for Comparison Value, set it for the lowest orb you will allow. So if I am looking for parallels when the Moon is 2 degrees, and only want to find people with an orb of less than 1 degree, I would put 1 degree 01 minutes.
  15. Now click Add for this one, and it will go to the left as AND Declination of Moon >= +1deg 01'. You can leave the AND as it is.
  16. Now do one more, but for Comparison Type choose <= (Less than or equal to).
  17. For Comparison Value choose the highest orb you want to allow. If I chose 2 degrees 59 minutes, when I click Add it looks like this: AND Declination of Moon <= +2 deg 59'.
  18. Now you are all set. Click the Search button and you will get a list of everyone in your chosen database that has a body at or near the same declination of your chosen body within the orb you selected.
  19. If you want to view Contraparallels, you can add each one of those as well, just make sure you don't forget to click the AND/OR button for each one.

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.How to calculate the 8 phases of the Moon in one lunar cycle and print them in a list? Not just New Moon, Full Moon and Quarter Moons, but also Crescent, Gibbous, Disseminating and Balsamic?

Probably the easiest way would be to use the Dynamic and set your search so it only uses Sun and Moon, and uses the hard aspects (conjunction, semisquare, square, sesquiquadrate, and opposition. This would give you your lunar phases.

So let's assume for a moment you want all the lunar phases for one cycle that begins with the first New Moon in November 2012. First, you would verify the date of that lunation through the Lunar Phase search.

  1. Click Chart, then Lunar Phase
  2. In the window that comes up, put your start date (using above, 1 Nov 2012), and the location you want the phases for. On the right side, under Which One click Next, under Location click relocated (or natal if you are had previously selected a chart set in your preferred location, then under Chart Type to Generate click New Moon. Then click OK. This gave me a chart of 13 Nov 2012, and since I don't need the actual chart, I can exit out of that chart. I now know the start date for my lunar phase list is 13 Nov 2012.
    .
    Now, let's set a Dynamic Search for one month beginning the day before that date so we can include that date in the output.
  3. Click Dynamic, then Transits & Progressions
  4. Set the start date, and the period of time (1 month if you want for one complete cycle, multiple months if you want several cycles)
  5. For Event Selection choose Transits to Transits
  6. Under Point Selection choose one that contains only Sun & Moon, such as Sunmoon
  7. Under Aspect Selection choose Harm08, which will give you conjunction, semisquare, square, sesquiquadrate and opposition aspects. Then choose View.
  8. This will give you Moon conjunct Sun (New Moon), Moon semisquare Sun (Waxing Crescent), Moon square Sun (First Quarter), Moon sesquiquadrate Sun (Waxing Gibbous), Moon opposition Sun (Full Moon), Moon sesquiquadrate (Waning Gibbous or Disseminating), Moon square Sun (Third Quarter), Moon semisquare Sun (Waning Crescent or Balsamic), and then back to the New Moon.

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.Time Conventions in Solar Fire seem opposite to those I sometimes see on a map. Is this a bug in Solar Fire?

In October 1884, an International Meridian Conference was held, and the Prime Meridian was officially set to Greenwich, England. From that point on, countries began to measure time zones as East or West of Greenwich, although some countries took a long time to adjust. France, for example, kept using Paris as the Prime Meridian until 1911. Standardized time zones were next. In 1918 the US began to use them, and many countries had adopted them by the late 1920's. In an ideal world, every time zone would represent one hour and be 15 degrees wide, but that's not the world we live in. Some places adopt half-hour deviations from standard time or use quarter hour deviations, and then there are places like China which use a single time zone even their country is much larger than 15 degrees of longitude.

Time zones are a convention, an artificial way of dealing with the rather inconvenient fact of the apparent motion of the Sun across the sky. There is no such thing as a time zone in reality. I'll give you an example of what I mean.

The whole state of Western Australia has one time zone. That means that on the clocks, if it is Noon in Denham (Latitude 25* 55' 41"; Longitude 113* 31' 58") it will also be Noon in Eucla (Latitude 31* 40' 35"; Longitude 128* 52' 54"), although they are more than 15 degrees of longitude apart. But in real time (what you may call Local Time), the sky looks much different in those two places even though the clocks say the same time. Even though the clock showing Noon is SUPPOSED to be the moment the Sun is directly over head, at that moment in Denham the Sun is still ten degrees away from the highest point in the sky, while in Eucla the Sun is seven degrees past it's highest point. In local time, Denham and Eucla have a different local noon, but because of the artificial convention, they have the same clock time.

Calculating what clock time it is at a particular longitude is based on this artificial convention, based on what is actually a rather arbitrary setting of the starting point at the Greenwich Observatory. There are some people, in fact, who have fought for decades to change the system so the Prime Meridian, and all the time zones, relate to real geocentric points, such as Lei Lines, or more historical places, such as the Great Pyramid.

The point of all this, though, is that the calculating of time for any particular point is based on a truly arbitrary system. There are a multitude of other systems that could have been adopted that would have worked equally well.

If you look on a time zone map, the convention is to add 1 hour for each zone east of the Prime Meridian, and subtract 1 hour for each zone west of it.

But if I had a system where I added 1 hour for each zone west of the Prime Meridian, and subtracted 1 hour for each zone east of it, that would work just as well, as long as I did so consistently. There are some computer programming languages where the math to adjust time zones makes more sense this this way.

Solar Fire's time zone math is not a bug, but is set the way it is because the system works best with the computer language that underlies the software.

As long as you know how a system is set up, there should be no problem using it. If, in one system, I add 2 hours east of the Prime Meridian, and in another system I subtract 2 hours east of the Prime Meridian, as long as the Prime Meridian remains the same, and the time zones used are the same distance apart and the same distance from the Prime Meridian, both systems will work.

When I was learning astrology as a youth in Philadelphia, I was taught to add 5 hours to my time to get Greenwich Mean Time. Looking at a chart that Solar Fire has calculated for me for that city, I see the time listed as +5:00. It was easy for me, when I first got Solar Fire, to look at that chart and think back to my early training. Ah yes, +5.....so I have to add 5 hours to Philadelphia time to get to GMT. It made perfect sense to me.

It's not a bug. Solar Fire's time conventions work, and should not create any problems as long as you understand the setup.

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.I am a little lost with the additional patterns or grand configs in a chart. Where might I find some definitions about some of these patterns, such as the Huber learning 1, 2, 3, 4 , or the Double Yod key, etc. ?

Solar Fire includes all the major patterns to which we had found references in astrological literature. Note that, due to lack of any single authoritative reference to aspect patterns, many patterns have been attributed with more than one name, and we have therefore included all the alternative names known to us.

However, interpretations of aspect patterns (beyond the most commonly used ones) are rarely found in the available astrological literature. This is perhaps understandable given that the interpretation of a pattern in a particular chart depends to a large degree on which planets are involved, in which combination, and in which signs and houses.

However, it may still be possible to attribute certain traits to particular patterns in general, and the following sources do give some further information along these lines:

The patterns dubbed "Rosetta", ""Hele" and "Double Yod key" were discussed in a recent article by Sally Fisher (Astrology Quarterly, The Astrological Lodge of London, Vol 74 No 2, Spring 2004 - "Astrological Keystones - New aspect formations for the new millennium?").

The Huber school's learning aspect patterns are also referred to as "learning triangles", and are made up of three aspects with colors red, blue and green. There are "good" and "bad" learning triangles, depending on the order in which the aspects occur. The "good" triangles progress from red to green to blue aspects (clockwise), whereas the "bad" triangles progress from red to blue to green. In this context, learning relates to one's experiences in life, and how we approach it. In the Huber method, only planets are used in these aspect patterns - nodes and chart angles are not included. The Huber school of astrology is popular especially in Europe, and further information is available from various sources, including a book called "The Cosmic Egg" e.g. http://www.astrocora.com.ar/acart/Review.htm

Graham Dawson , Technical Director

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. I wonder if anyone could point me in the direction of how to erect a tertiary chart using Solar Fire?

You can calculate tertiary progressed charts for a given date and time, or find hits to a natal chart over any given period of time, using tertiary progressions.
To calculate a tertiary progressed chart

  1. Chart / Progressed
  2. Choose "Chart Type to Generate" as either "Mean Tertiary Progressed" or "True Tertiary Progressed".

To calculate a dynamic report using tertiary progressions

  1. Dynamic / Transits & Progressions
  2. Under Event Selection, select "Progs to Radix"
  3. Under Dynamic Type / Progressions, choose "Tertiary
  4. Graham Dawson, Technical Director

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. I have seen two values for the solar year i.e. 365.2422 days and 365.2563 days. Why are there two different values?

One value (the lesser one) is the average solar tropical year - this is the time taken for the Sun to return to the same position in the precessing tropical zodiac. The other value (the larger one) is the average solar sidereal year - this is the time taken for the sun to return to the same position relative to the stars. Graham Dawson Co-Author

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.Can I use an email service that is not MAPI like Outlook? I would like to use my Yahoo address for instance?

First, we must distinguish between a MAPI-compliant program, and an email address. MAPI is a mail automation protocol that allows third party programs to automate the generation of email.
An email address is what an email program sends out.
Without a MAPI compliant email program you can not send files directly from Solar Fire. You can, however, create the files in Solar Fire, and then manually attach them to the emails you want to send. If you access your email via the web, such as by logging into Yahoo's website, that is not MAPI-compliant. However, if you have a Yahoo email account, and can use a MAPI-compliant email program to access your Yahoo account, then you can use your Yahoo address with Solar Fire.

These are some MAPI-compliant email programs:
  - Microsoft Outlook
  - Microsoft Outlook Express
  - Microsoft Exchange
  - Entourage
  - Apples Mail for OS X
  - Qualcomm's Eudora
  - Pegasus Mail
(Note: Not all versions of these products may be MAPI compliant; please check with the program's provider for information about the version you intend to use.)

In addition to making sure your email software is MAPI compliant, you may also need to be sure that the MAPI options are activated, as they may not be turned on by default.
MAPI Options:
  - Eudora - Go to Tools/Options, find the MAPI category, and ensure that "Use Eudora MAPI server" is switched to either "When Eudora is Running" or "Always".
  - Outlook Express - Click Tools, Options, the General tab, then click to Make Outlook Express My Default Simple MAPI client, then click OK
  - Netscape Composer 4.0 - Edit, Preferences, click the + next to Mail & Groups, click Mail Server, click More Options, put a check mark where it reads Use Netscape Messenger for MAPI-based applications, then click OK

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Technical Issues and Error Messages

.Will my Solar Fire Gold v8 work on Windows 8?

Yes

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.Will my Solar Fire Gold v8 work on Windows 8 Tablet?

Yes, you can use the latest versions of Solar Fire on a Windows 8 tablet or convertible notebook, IF (and this is important) it uses X86 chips built by Intel or AMD.  
But, and here is the part that can be a bit confusing, you can't install Solar Fire on a system that runs Windows RT (Windows 8 Run Time), a system that is installed on tablets/convertibles which are manufactured with an ARM processor.  All tablets using ARM processors cannot run standard windows applications... Only Windows Store apps (which use the RT, a new cross-platform application architecture that supports both Windows 8 and RT and their respective processors) can be installed by users on Windows RT devices.   
 
If you aren't sure whether you have x86 architecture or ARM architecture, you can: 
* Look at the spec sheet that came with your device, or 
* Ask the sellor which chip is in the box..

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.Is your Solar Fire technical support free?

Technical Support for Solar Fire products is FREE for all current versions (v7.31 and later). So that we can keep this service cost free and personal please make sure that you contact us for Genuine Technical difficulties only. If you would like information on HOW TO USE our software then please feel free to join in our Online Classes, run on a regular basis by Rhonda Buttery.
You can also contact your local agent for information about local demonstration days

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.If I try to open Solar Fire and a box appears with the message "Unable to extract INI file" - What do I do?

Make sure that all of your charts and data have been saved to a USB. Then you need to perform a clean uninstall. This means making sure that you remove ALL old files, folders and settings during the uninstall process. To do this:
Go to Start, hover the mouse over All Programs.
Click on the Esoteric Technologies folder.
Then click on the Solar Fire Gold v8 folder.
Scroll down the list and click on Uninstall. Re-install your Solar Fire, making sure you do not launch the program until the Solar Fire User Files have finished extracting at the end.

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.I have just installed Solar Fire and started it up and now I see an Error message - Error 53: File Not Found?

If you see this message something probably did not install properly, and the message appeared when opening Solar Fire for the first time after the installation.
Please perform a clean uninstall via Start>All Programs>Esoteric Technologies>Solar Fire>Uninstall Then re-install Solar Fire

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.I have Windows XP and I am getting the following Error Message: "Runtime Error 7 Out of Memory when trying to open Solar Fire on Win XP"

This can happen on the original 2001 version of Windows XP if you have now downloaded the Microsoft 'Application Compatibility Update' since you first installed Solar Fire. Now you need to turn off the 'Compatibility Mode.' To do that right click on the Solar Fire icon on your desktop, then click on 'properties' and then click on the 'Compatibility' tab. Everything on this Compatibility screen should be unchecked. In other words turn off compatibility mode for Solar Fire. Solar Fire always works properly with compatibility mode turned off, but sometimes the original Windows XP turns it on automatically for mysterious reasons.
If you see that message for any other reason, please contact our Tech Support Department for assistance.

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.I am trying to install my new Solar Fire V8 from the download link, but I'm getting a "Win32" error. What's that?

If you are trying to install Solar Fire V8 from the download link we provided you and you get a "Win32" error, then the download was incomplete or the file somehow got corrupted while transferring over the internet. You should delete that file and re download the program.

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.I have received the message: Swiss Ephemeris files missing SE_EPHE_PATH detected

If you receive this error message:
"Swiss Ephemeris files missing, contact Solar Fire technical support. Environment variable SE_EPHE_PATH detected! This variable is most likely set incorrectly"

Then there is a conflict with the Swiss Ephemeris from another Astrology program. The other program is trying to force Solar Fire Gold to use the Swiss Ephemeris from the other software. However, Solar Fire Gold needs the latest version of the Swiss Ephemeris. (This problem happens mainly with older versions of other astrology programs and older versions of Windows.) The other astrology programs on your computer should be able to use the newer Swiss Ephemeris that is included with Solar Fire Gold. In fact, the newer Swiss Ephemeris in Solar Fire Gold may actually increase the accuracy of those other astrology programs.

Here is how you delete the environment variable so that the newer Swiss Ephemeris in Solar Fire Gold will be used by your computer:
Right click on the Start button, select Explore
In the left hand pane of the box that appears, right click on Computer, then select Properties from the list that appears
In the next box that appears, in the top left hand corner click on the link that says Advanced System Properties, for Windows 7, for XP click on Advanced
In the box that appears in the bottom right hand corner click on Environment Variables
You will see two lists; one says User Variable and the other says System Variables. Scroll down both of these lists and see if there is a variable that says: SE_EPHE_PATH
If you see one or more select them and press delete.
You can also correct this problem by deleting the autoexec.bat file. The only problem with this method is that it can sometimes delete other important files. If you choose to use this method you do so at your own risk. Here are the steps to take to delete the autoexec.bat file:
Open a CMD window. Click on the Start button, and then click on Run. In the box that appears type in CMD
Do a "dir autoexec.bat" command within window 3
If autoexec.bat is found then type "autoexec.bat"
Verify that the only thing happening in the file is "set SE_EPHE_PATH"
If this is the case, then "del autoexec.bat"
Type "exit" in the CMD window, which should then close it Reboot the computer.

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.My Solar Fire will not install and is telling me that I have an "Incorrect Password". What can I do?

There is no known problem with entering a password when initiating an installation of Solar Fire. Usually this problem is encountered when you are not entering your Registration details correctly. Please make sure that you are entering your details word and number perfect. Capitals must be capitals, lower case must be lower case etc. Also please ensure that you are not mistaking a numerical "0" for an alphabetical "o" and vice versa.
Our password system does reply on the computer being set for English in the Windows settings, as well as a regular English keyboard. If you have you're your Windows to a language other than English or you are using another language for the keyboard settings then, yes, there might be a problem.

You will need to check the language setting in Windows, as follows:
Start > Control Panel > Regional and Language Options
Formats tab: Current format: English (Australia) [or English (anything)]
Keyboards and Languages tab: click on "Change Keyboards" button and on the next screen, under the General tab, check that the keyboard is set to "US" for the English (Australia) language

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.I Was Trying to reinstall Solar Fire v7, but accidentally used my v6 install file. Now when I try to open Solar Fire I get error 234, and runtime error 5. What do I do?

Error 234 usually occurs when a program has trouble reading a file name for one reason or another. Runtime error 5 occurs because a program is looking for a particular file, usually a library file (called a .dll file) but can't find it so comes to a stop.
Basically, the only solution is to uninstall all Solar Fire files completely and then reinstall Solar Fire v7. Before you do, though, you would want to copy any Solar Fire files you have in your Documents or My Documents folder so you can save them. Those files are your User Files...any charts you've saved, for instance. You can put them back in Solar Fire once you've got it working again.

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.I am a little lost with the additional patterns or grand configs in a chart. Where might I find some definitions about some of these patterns, such as the Huber learning 1, 2, 3, 4 , or the Double Yod key, etc. ?

Solar Fire includes all the major patterns to which we had found references in astrological literature. Note that, due to lack of any single authoritative reference to aspect patterns, many patterns have been attributed with more than one name, and we have therefore included all the alternative names known to us. However, interpretations of aspect patterns (beyond the most commonly used ones) are rarely found in the available astrological literature. This is perhaps understandable given that the interpretation of a pattern in a particular chart depends to a large degree on which planets are involved, in which combination, and in which signs and houses.

However, it may still be possible to attribute certain traits to particular patterns in general, and the following sources do give some further information along these lines:
The patterns dubbed "Rosetta", ""Hele" and "Double Yod key" were discussed in a recent article by Sally Fisher (Astrology Quarterly, The Astrological Lodge of London, Vol 74 No 2, Spring 2004 - "Astrological Keystones - New aspect formations for the new millennium?").
The Huber school's learning aspect patterns are also referred to as "learning triangles", and are made up of three aspects with colors red, blue and green. There are "good" and "bad" learning triangles, depending on the order in which the aspects occur. The "good" triangles progress from red to green to blue aspects (clockwise), whereas the "bad" triangles progress from red to blue to green. In this context, learning relates to one's experiences in life, and how we approach it. In the Huber method, only planets are used in these aspect patterns - nodes and chart angles are not included. The Huber school of astrology is popular especially in Europe, and further information is available from various sources, including a book called "The Cosmic Egg" e.g. http://www.astrocora.com.ar/acart/Review.htm

Graham Dawson , Technical Director

   [Back to the TOP]   

.I wonder if anyone could point me in the direction of how to erect a tertiary chart using Solar Fire?

You can calculate tertiary progressed charts for a given date and time, or find hits to a natal chart over any given period of time, using tertiary progressions. To calculate a tertiary progressed chart 1) Chart / Progressed 2) Choose "Chart Type to Generate" as either "Mean Tertiary Progressed" or "True Tertiary Progressed". To calculate a dynamic report using tertiary progressions 1) Dynamic / Transits & Progressions 2) Under Event Selection, select "Progs to Radix" 3) Under Dynamic Type / Progressions, choose "Tertiary. Graham Dawson, Technical Director

   [Back to the TOP]   

.I have seen two values for the solar year i.e. 365.2422 days and 365.2563 days. Why are there two different values?

One value (the lesser one) is the average solar tropical year - this is the time taken for the Sun to return to the same position in the precessing tropical zodiac. The other value (the larger one) is the average solar sidereal year - this is the time taken for the sun to return to the same position relative to the stars. Graham Dawson Co-Author

 


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