Home

Modified February 15, 2016

Valens was programmed with python3 and tkinter(python's official GUI).

It's a simplified Morinus with hellenistic techniques added.

Chris Brennan's HA101 course inspired this software.

Hellenistic chart:

Round chart:

Features

Options: Hellenistic or Round charts, Bounds, Antiscia, Dodecatemoria, Topocentric, 7 lots, Syzygy, show or not the data in the middle of the chart, Ayanamsa, Colors, Sect, Primary directions (Placidus(semiarc), i.e. Ptolemy), Lot-Editor(shown only in Tables), Zodiacal Releasing,

Default-location, Nodes, Quadrant-divisions(Prophyry, Alcabitus, Regiomontanus, Placidus), Managing the options

Horoscope: Starts with a HereAndNow, Online-database, Load/Save horoscopes, Synastry, FindTime, Graphical Ephemeris

Tables: Speculum I-II, Misc, 7Lots, Lots(from Editor), Velocity, Antiscia, Rise/Set times, Dodecatemoria, Rise-times of signs, Exact transits, MidPoints, User-speculum, Planetary Hours, FixedStars,

Zodiacal Releasing, Primary directions (Placidus(semiarc), i.e. Ptolemy) [colors acc. to promissor],

Charts: Secondary Directions, Revolutions(sidereal solars if ayanamsa selected), Transits, Elections, Syzygy, The Other(if hellenistic chart is selected then show Round and vice versa)

Via popup-menus(right-click on charts): Black&White charts, Comparison charts (need to left-click on "Windows"-popup-menu in order for the cascaded popup-menu get displayed), SpeculumI-II, 7Lots, Lots(from editor), Velocity, TheOther

Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are only shown in Speculum I, II.

Windows can be resized and the charts will be redrawn accordingly.

Planned:

Debian package

More images

Hellenistic Comparison chart (revolution for 2001):

Speculum I:

Need to scroll down to see the transsaturnian planets.

In Options/Colors you can set the text-colors to black in the tables.

Installation

Linux

Download valens.zip (see below) and unzip it.

Install python3 and tkinter and the font (Valens/Res/Valens.ttf).

On Debian and Ubuntu Linux the name of the packages are: python3 and python3-tk.

Install font Valens/Res/Valens.ttf. Perhaps double left-click on Valens.ttf and pressing "Install" also works but I usually only copy it to ".fonts" folder in my HOME.

Download ExtensionMod.zip and copy ExtensionMod/Linux/32bit/sweastronomy.so to the Valens folder, if you have 32-bit Linux or if 32bit-python3 is installed on your computer. Otherwise copy ExtensionMod/Linux/64bit/sweastronomy.so to the Valens folder.

How to start the program (after you installed everything):

1. Right-click on valens.py file and go to "Properties"

2. Find "Permission" and enable Execute (by checking "Allow executing file as program")

3. Start program with double left-click on valens.py file and press "Run"

The first two steps only need to be done once, of course, so next time just do step 3.

Install from Terminal: (Ubuntu/Debian Linux)

sudo apt-get install python3

sudo apt-get install python3-tk

Font:

First check if the folder already exists in the HOME (in a Terminal):

ls -a

If doesn't exist, then you can create the ".fonts" folder in your HOME and copy Valens.ttf in it.

Note that the folder starts with a "."(dot), so its a hidden one.

The folder can be easily created from the Terminal in the HOME:

mkdir .fonts

Some basic Linux commands: ls (list), pwd (print working directory), cd (change directory)

Initially the Terminal puts you in your HOME. If you type:

pwd

it prints /home/rob in my case. ls lists the folder's contents. cd Valens will change to the Valens folder if Valens is a folder in your HOME. "cd .." changes folder up a level (without the quotes).

See above how to get sweastronomy.so.

Start Valens from a Terminal (from the Valens folder):

python3 ./valens.py

Windows

Windows-binary(the exe-file): Download ValensExe.zip and unzip it.

Install font ValensExe/Res/Valens.ttf:

WinXP: copy the ttf-file to Control Panel --> Fonts

Win7: Double click on Valens.ttf and Install.

Double-clicking on valens.exe starts the program.

The Windows-binary already contains python3, tkinter and sweastronomy.pyd.

The source:

1. download valens.zip (see below) and unzip it.

Install python3 and tkinter and the font (Valens/Res/Valens.ttf):

2. download python-3.4.1.msi ( Windows x86 MSI Installer ). It contains both python3 and tkinter.

During the installation of python set "Add python.exe to Path" in the "Customize python-3.4.1" window.

3. download ExtensionMod.zip and unzip it, then copy ExtensionMod/Win/32bit/sweastronomy.pyd to the Valens folder. This sweastronomy.pyd is a 32-bit dll. This is why we downloaded the 32-bit (i.e. x86) python3.

4. Install font Valens/Res/Valens.ttf. See the Windows-binary above to install the font.

Start Valens from a CommandPrompt (from the Valens folder):

python valens.py

Note: As far as I know on Windows both python2 and python3 are called python. It can cause problems to have both python2.x and python3 installed on a computer on Windows.

I recommend unistalling python2 before installing python3, or changing the Path to the appropriate python executable in the Environment variables, whenever you want to use the other python.

Mac OS

I couldn't test it on Mac. The 64-bit sweastronomy.so is available.

Download ExtensionMod.zip (see below) and copy sweastronomy.so in the Valens folder from ExtensionMod/Mac/64bit/sweastronomy.so.

Unfortunately many features don't work (the software starts but e.g. clicking on Charts/Revolutions just hangs). As soon as somebody lends me his/her MacBook, I will fix these problems.

General Remarks

The horoscope files(.hor) and the place-database(placedb.dat) of Morinus can be used.

The bounds can only be shown with colors in the hellenistic chart, so in b&w they won't be shown.

There are many examples of how to use a city in Horoscope/Data and click on Place-button (e.g. GMT+ or GMT-).

The ephemeris files shouldn't be copied to the SWEP folder because there will be a program-crash (it's some kind of a unicode problem, I haven't managed to solve yet). The built-in Moshier ephemeris of the Swiss Ephemeris will be used which gives exact positions between 3000BC-3000AD.

You need to left-click on the "Windows"-popup-menu on chart-windows in order for the cascaded popup-menu get displayed.

Window-management: works like in Morinus. The opened windows get closed if new horoscope is loaded, data of the chart change or most of the Options change. The contents of the windows opened via the popup-menu of Charts/SecondaryDirections or Charts/Elections get updated according to stepper dialog.

The window of Charts/SecondaryDirections, Charts/Revolutions and Charts/Transits gets displayed right behind the main window (only on Windows). This is a minor inconvenience.

Unfortunately it's only possible to save the contents of a window to postscript with TkInter, so no bmp, jpg, png, etc. No popular image editor can convert postscript to any common format, that's why there is no "Horoscope/Save as bmp".

sweastronomy.so(Linux), sweastronomy.pyd(Windows) is an extension module (a dll) that reads from the swiss ephemeris files(or computes the planetary positions) and also computes many things like quadrant housecusps, ayanamsa, etc.

Max 12 symbols can be displayed in angular places in the hellenistic chart, max 7 otherwise.

In the outer chart max 12 symbols in every place in the hellenistic chart.

The software displays the seven planets first, so they will always be shown.

If the topocentric option is selected then the topocentric positions will be shown and used everywhere(Tables, Charts(radix, revolutions, ...), PDs).

Primary Directions(Placidus(semiarc), i.e. Ptolemy): it was tested with Morinus. There are fewer options in Valens but the "User" has aspects too. No placidean "mundane" PDs, so the aspects are always computed in the Ecliptic (with or without latitude).

FindTime: Geocentric positions and tropical longitudes(degrees: 0-360) are required.

5000BC-5000AD will be searched if the program finds the Swiss Ephemeris otherwise 3000BC-3000AD.

Search starts from 1/1/1(january 1, 1st year) if BC is not checked, -1/1/1 if it is checked and finds max. one chart/day.

Use(minutes, seconds, retr): if not checked then they won't count: e.g. given planetary position is 239d 7m 49s. E.g. 239 0m 0s or e.g. 239 37m 34s will also be found because the program will check the degree only.

If retrograde is unchecked then the planet will be found according to its longitude only, it won't matter if it's retrograde or not.

Approximation: the given longitude (degree, minute, second) will be added to and subtracted from the given planetary longitudes.

E.g. the longitude of a planet is 239d 27m 49s and the approximation-minute is 20 then a range will be searched (239d 7m 49s - 239d 47m 49s). The longitude of the planet will be searched in this range. This range will be calculated for every planet.

This is useful in case of charts created from older ephemerides where the positions are not that exact.

Online search: (Horoscope/Data/Place dialog) Valens uses the GeoNames online database. There is a slider controlling the size of the online-list. The greater the value the slower the data acquisition will be. In case of only one result (i.e one city) the data will be immediately written in the fields without popping up a list.

Lot-editor: LT: Light of the Time, LD: Lord of Day, LH: Lord of Hour, DE:Degree, RE: Reference (Lot can refer to another lot), "!" means Lord of something.

Zodiacal Releasing: Left-click on a row to see L3, L4. Time is shown according to the settings in Horoscope/Data dialog (time-zone, DST).

The Options menu items (Automatic Save, Save and Reload) are for managing the Options.

If Automatic Save is checked then the program will immediately save the options-settings after you change them. If you don't check Automatic Save and you changed the options-settings then you have to save them anytime you want by clicking on Save(if you don't save the settings before closing the program they won't be saved).

The changed options will be saved in the option file.

You can discard all your changed/saved options-settings by clicking on Reload. (e.g. change the color of the Frame of the radix horoscope to red, press Ok and you will see it in red color, now press reload).

Acknowledgements

The people who helped during the development of Morinus, because much of its code was copied to Valens.

Denis(Israel): for building the 64-bit Linux and Mac sweastonomy.so-dlls

Attila Schler(Hungary): the Windows-binary and sweastrology.pyd

Tanja Veselinovic(Serbia): design and astrology

Changelog

31.03.2014. version 1.0 released

26.04.2014. Pressing ENTER in Notes-tab closes dialog; fixed

26.04.2014. "Ok" to "Close" in dialogs of Tables-menu

26.04.2014. 1-degree ticks improved in round-chart

02.05.2014. More images about the software added to the webpage

26.05.2014. Minimum size of windows; fixed

26.05.2014. Sidereal positions (ayanamsa) in roundchart; fixed

20.06.2014. A note on ephemeris-files added to General Remarks (there is a program-crash!)

20.06.2014. Windows-binary added

20.06.2014. Installation changed

20.06.2014. Acknowledgements added

20.06.2014. A note on Charts/SecDirs, Revolutions and Transits added to General Remarks

21.06.2014. A few notes added to the webpage

15.02.2016. Hour wasn't saved; fixed in Options/DefaultLocation (source only !)

robert dot pluto at gmail dot com

Click on the arrow on the right to download.