Alt #244 has astrology, which I think is very cool, and I'm trying to assemble a Lusternian star chart, but it's not going as well as planned.

First off, stars change alignment in the middle of the day. Anyone know if it's a set time (like noon), or if the code actually has fractional days?

Second, retrograde motion. Is there any way to tell that a planet is moving retrograde other than detailed notes? Will a retrograde tag show up on stargaze? Also, does anyone know how predictable retrograde motion is?

Any advice that will keep me from being chained to the astrolabe is highly appreciated!

Retrograde motion shows up in stargaze. No way to predict it that I know of...except that if Aapek is retrograde in a sign, at least 1-2 other planets will become retrograde in that sign.

I hear the stars change on the 16th of every month.

And just chain an astrolabe to you instead! or get one of those hand-held ones. Same concept.

The stars change multiple times each day. I figured that one out.


5 Juliary 192, time unknown
Sun is in the sign of the Burning Censer.
Moon is in the sign of the Burning Censer.
Eroee is in the sign of the Dolphin.
Sidiak is in the sign of the Dragon.
Tarox is in the sign of the Volcano.
Papaxi is in the sign of the Antlers.
Aapek is in the sign of the Lion.

6 Juliary, dark after midnight same as above

6 Juliary 192, dark before midnight
You carefully make adjustments to a brass astrolabe, and gaze up into the sky.
Sun is in the sign of the Burning Censer.
Moon is in the sign of the Burning Censer.
Eroee is in the sign of the Lion.
Sidiak is in the sign of the Dragon.
Tarox is in the sign of the Volcano.
Papaxi is in the sign of the Antlers.
Aapek is in the sign of the Lion.

7 Juliary, dark after midnight same as above
7 Juliary, mid-morning same as above
7 Juliary, early afternoon same as above
8 Juliary, midnight same
8 Juliary, approaching dawn same

8 Juliary 192, exactly noon
Sun is in the sign of the Burning Censer.
Moon is in the sign of the Spider.
Eroee is in the sign of the Lion.
Sidiak is in the sign of the Dragon.
Tarox is in the sign of the Volcano.
Papaxi is in the sign of the Antlers.
Aapek is in the sign of the Lion.

8 Juliary, late afternoon
Sun is in the sign of the Burning Censer.
Moon is in the sign of the Spider.
Eroee is in the sign of the Lion.
Sidiak is in the sign of the Dragon.
Tarox is in the sign of the Volcano.
Papaxi is in the sign of the Antlers.
Aapek is in the sign of the Crocodile.

Oh well Nejii was always saying something about the 16th. He'll know more.

16th is when the Sun changes. From the information here, it seems that each planet changes at different rates.

This is where looking closely at the AB files for astrology is useful. It tells you approximately how fast each planet goes through the cycle, so you'd take that number and find out how many days that is, such as if it's 3 months, that's 75 IG days. You'd take the number of days you get and divide by the number of signs there are to go through. The number you come up with is how fast each planet changes signs. To track it from there, you'd just need to catch the time a planet just changed signs and then time it from there when it will change next from your calculations.

Sun changes on the 15th, not the 16th. Unless my memory's betrayed me.

Hrm, seems it is 15th. Scrying Pool is different from HELP ASTROLOGY.

Where is Kepler when you need him? *cackle*

Papaxi. What does it dooooo?

-20% to either health/mana/ego. Lasts like 2-3 minutes.

So if your target has 4000 max health, and you cast a Health Papaxi curse on them, for the next 2-3 minutes, your target will have 3200 max health.

Sorry, should have been more specific.

When casting a zodiac sphere, what effect does its location have?

It randomly alters one aspect of the sphere's casting, the magnitude determined by Papaxi's position in relation to that sphere.

If Papaxi is inside a sphere you're casting, you'll get a big bonus to a random aspect. The random aspect is different each time you cast the sphere.

Ok. New question!

Mini weakenings. Moon stays in a sign for a little over a day. Moon will change sign in the middle of a day. Weakenings run from midnight to midnight though, right? When's the weakening?

EDIT: Answered this one from my notes. Knew they'd be useful!

Moon changes signs at midnight or noon. It always turns at midnight for org-aligned signs.

And, because my notes are so nifty, I can count the days to weakenings into eternity! Yay, me!

Some of them are 15th, some are 16th. It's pretty arbitrary-seeming and annoying, but bugging it a couple times had no effect so I can only assume it's meant to be that way and it's just a reference to RL astronomy or something.

As for weakenings, I don't think they last midnight-midnight - earlier it was dawn-midnight, or something weird like that.

Is this not true for some of the signs?

The moon changes at "late night after midnight." You shouldn't have to wait long to focus.

We could only start at "late night approaching dawn."

@Rika: It wasn't when I was an astrologer. In fact, the majority of them changed on the 16th, it was only a few on the 15th. This was what actually happened, not what the file said, which were different things.

The mini weakenings repeat at the same dates year after year, since the moon's orbit divides the year evenly.

And when I first made the mini weakening schedule a long while ago, the moon entered the sign I used to calibrate it very close to dawn. I specify they'll start at the turn of dawn on the given date in Celest's scrolls.