When a Chart is displayed a pre-defined or temporary set of aspects is always used as part of the display. AstroGold comes with many pre-defined Aspect Sets, although only one can be in use at any one time.
>> To see which Aspect Set is currently in use...
1.Click the Preferences icon in the Toolbar
2.Click on Aspects - this will display the "Aspect Set" tab, with the currently selected Aspect Set displayed.
Aspect Set Descriptions (as per factory settings)
Huber
In the Huber system of drawing an astrology chart, "the aspects form a complete pattern that represents the structure of the individual consciousness. This includes a central life motivation ... this is the deepest level in man and barely, if at all, accessible to the unaware, even though the whole life is governed by this motivating life energy".
The Huber style of chart drawing draws in aspect lines using three basic colors. Red is for dynamic aspects, blue for calm aspects, and green for learning aspects. Or to loosely compare to the modalities of signs: cardinal, fixed and mutable.
•Conjunction, Opposition, Square = red
•Trine, Sextile = blue
•Quincunx, Semisextile = green
Aspect Patterns
The Huber system utilizes aspect patterns called "learning triangles". These are made up of three points and/or groupings of points, where the sides of the resulting triangle (aspect figure) are made up of one red, one blue and one green line. Moving clockwise around the triangle, the order in which the colored aspect lines are arranged is also significant, red-green-blue being seen as more favorable than for example red-blue-green (in terms of how problems are approached).
Tight
Standard aspects with 1° orbs.
BySignAndOrb
This aspect set is based on the notion that when two bodies are in aspect by sign, and are also in aspect by orb, the aspect takes on extra importance, making it more significant. So Sun at 1° Aries is square Moon at 25° Cancer, but it is much more significant if Sun at 1 Aries square Moon at 5 Cancer (a square aspect by sign only), thus in orb. So like the BySign aspect set, this method does not use 'out of sign' aspects at all. All the major aspects are used.
Moiety
The principle of moieties is to determine the orb of an aspect by adding half of the orb of each planet involved. (This is identical to averaging the orb for each planet involved in an aspect.) For example, if Pluto has an orb of 6° and The Sun has an orb of 12°, then the moiety is 9°, so they are in aspect with each other only when they are within 9° of each other. Conjunction, Opposition, Trine, Square, Sextile and Parallel & ContraParallel.
BySign
This aspect set doesn't use user defined orbs, it determines aspects only according to which signs each planet is placed in. For example, if one planet is in Aries, and another in Cancer, then they are in Square aspect, regardless of which degree of their signs they are in, because 0° Cancer is 90° (a square) from 0° Aries which established the general principle that Cancer is square to Aries. All the major aspects are used.
Mediev
Only uses Conjunction, Opposition, Trine, Square, Sextile and Parallel & Contraparallel.
Synwide
Same as Synastry aspect set but with wider orbs
Eclipses
Aspects configured specifically for using with eclipses
Standard
A general purpose set of aspects.
Synastry
Major aspects plus 5th, 7th and 9th Harmonics
Fixed Stars
Just Conjunction and Opposition with small orbs.
BySignTraditional
Same as the BySign aspect set, but only Conjunction, Sextile, Square, Trine, and Opposition are used.
See Preferences for more details.
