NEW IN ARGUS 4.2

Argus 4.2 which came out in summer 2010 is an update of the earlier version 4.0 fra 2005.

Headlines:

Main changes:

The atlas update was seriously overdue. The timetables around the world had many errors, and upgrades were unavailable. Consequently, we have bought a license to use the ACS atlas, which is the standard for serious use these days.

With the new atlas, it would make sense to include astrogeography, which is equivalent to the AstroCartoGraphy introduced by Jim Lewis. The traditional version is a world map with curves showing where in the world, you would have your planets angular (e.g. on the descendant) if you were born at that place. The idea is, that if you for example move somwhere placing your otherwize inactive Venus on the cusp of your midheaven, it will get activated.

We took a step further from the world map version putting a zoomable world map as a background for the live chart meaning, that now you can use the mouse to navigate both place, birthtime and event time and se the chart change accordingly. This will also let you find the birthplace and time, if you just have a chartwheel with no birth details, e.g. from a book or article.

The Atlas is now expanded with a better interface for inserting new cities, for finding timezones and for looking up the closest cities if only latitude and longitude is known. For each city the distance from the given place is shown (in kilometers).

The radix part of the live chart will let you choose orb system, and you can switch off and on the houses and single planets. This lets you visualize the movement of a single planet or a subset, following special aspects or demonstrating astronomical facts.

For horary astrologers, the live chart will open with the radix bodies only if the starting date is today, and with the special horary orbset using lower orbs for separating aspects.

The live chart can expand to full window, hiding all panels exect the time navigators. So now it will fit even the 10" netbook screens only 600 pixels high.

In the output window, chartwheels, astromaps and other graphics can be double clicked to make them full-screen. The graph can then be printed sized and rotated to the maximum the paper can accept. This is especially useful for the astromaps, which you may rather have printed in landscape mode.

If you have any interpretations or if you want to write you own, an in-built script editor will let you edit any interpretation, also encrypted ones, that you may have purchased. Included are four interpretation templates, i.e. with headlines only, where you can fill in your own stuff: radix, synastry, transit and progressed.

The details:

Live-chart
Batch planet selection can be done by pulling the mouse over the checkboxes.
The size of the live chart window is remembered between sessions.
Bookmarks and settings remembered between sessions individually for each chart
Automatic movement does not start inadvertently
A button in the live chart lets you choose a city in the built-in atlas
Aspects between MC and ASC are no longer shown
Pull-down box for choosing progression method
Live chart positions are now shown in black, not in gray, in the two panels.
The time navigator Previous and Next buttons now work more intuitively
The window is reorganized to be shown in full also on smaller screens.
The buttons: Update and Restore include a changed latitude and longitude
The time navigators respond to daylight saving time shifts
Interactive astrogeograpy with a zoomable world map
The chartwheel can zoom out to fill the whole window, time navigators still operable
The radix aspects may be chosen in different flavours: none, 1 degree, horary or radix
Radix planets can be selected or deselected individually
Houses can be deselected, in which case Aries will be at the left side

Ease of use
Graphics like eg chartwheels can be doubleclicked to appear fullscreen mode and printed separately
Mouse wheel is now supported in the ouput page
Easier procedure for adding new cities to the atlas
A timezone lookup will find the closest zone(s) for a given latitude/longitude
A list of the 60 closest cities from a given latitude/longitude
Possible to print a chartwheel with only a subset of planets
Footer and header can have a separate font setup in preferences
Clock chartwheel can be selected to include a positions table

Cosmetics
The background colour of the control panel is user definable (preferences)
The color of text output is also user definable
The chartwheel can now be centered horizontally on the output page
The symbol for the Moon's node is somewhat smaller in some chartwheel styles
The chartwheel style "Universal" has a lighter appearance of the degree scale


Specialities
The colour of all aspect types, not only the basic ones is now user definable.
Function key F1 can be used for macros instead of always activating the help system
Outputting the database contents can include notes (right-click the button)
Outputting 60 years progression ephemeris show the progression method used
Easier editing of system variables, especially the comma-separated ones.
Makros can be used for setting the chartwheel style:
XIWS0 Lotus
XIWS1 Anglo-saxon
XIWS2 Universal
XIWS3 French
Makros for choosing aspect style:
XIWA0 Aspects to symbol
XIWA1 Aspects to centre
XIWA2 Aspects to degree
XIWA3 No aspects
Makros for showing postions figures in the chartwheel
XIWD0 No degrees and mintes
XIWD1 Just degrees
XIWD2 Degrees and minutes
The Footer can now be longer than just a half page
If you install the full Swiss Ephemeris (32MB extra) you may output a one-month ephemeris with the new Kuiper belt planets (Eris, Sedna... 8 total)

Errors fixed
The button"overwrite all" when replacing a backup now works correctly
Day chart fixed (sometimes needed to be run twice to get correct results)
Spurious color in start of a transit graph fixed
You may now delete the clock-chartwheel in the output window without getting an error message
An error which in rare occations could remove all icons from the control pane is fixed
Calling the EE website through the help menu does not longer block Argus until the website is closed
The Kündig calculation now works also if the section spans across a DST shift
The live chart now manages DST shifts on the fly

Installation:

The program can be installed on top of a previously installed version 4.0 without overwriting your data, it will merge in.

Prices: *)

With the ACS atlas license the price has gone a slightly up even if it does not look so at the first glance. Electronic delivery (download) is now the standard without any discount. You will have to pay extra, if you want a printed manual and a CDROM

ARGUS 4 New
ARGUS 4 update from ver. 3.1 eller DOS PCA
ARGUS 4 update from ver 4.0

201.- EUR
134.- EUR
40.- EUR

*) The prices may vary due to exchange rate fluctuations

Danish VAT of 25% included. Customers outside the EU will pay no VAT.