Solar Eclipse Activations Study
An eclipse on a natal body is the classic marker of a significant year, and a Solar Eclipse Activations study tells you which eclipses touch your natal positions and by what aspect.
The study generates an event each time a solar eclipse falls within orb of an aspect to a natal body. Every event records the eclipse and its Saros series, the natal body it contacts, the angle between them and the moment the eclipse occurs.
Create a Solar Eclipse Activations Study
To add a Solar Eclipse Activations study to the current workspace:
- Click Transit Studies → Solar Eclipse Activations on the menu bar.
Alternatively, click the Solar Eclipse Studies drop-down button on the toolbar and select Solar Eclipse Activations from its flyout.
The new study appears at the bottom of the Studies list and is selected automatically, so its settings open immediately. It takes its name from the study type.
What This Study Finds
Solar Eclipse Activations is an activation study rather than a transiting one, and the distinction decides what counts as an event. The eclipse is an event the transiting bodies produce in their own right, entirely in the sky, and it occurs whether or not any natal body is engaged. What makes it an activation is that the eclipse is at the same time aspecting a natal body, within orb, and it is that contact which activates the natal body. In a transiting study such as Transiting Aspects, by contrast, the natal body is one end of a contact that a single transiting body makes to it.
The angles the study looks for between the eclipse and the natal body are held in its Aspects table. That table carries angles alone and no orbs of its own, so it is the Transit Orb, on the Natal Data tab, that sets how close the eclipse must fall to one of those angles for the contact to register. See Orb Settings for how the orb fields behave. The Eclipse Types tab restricts the study to the kinds of solar eclipse you are interested in; see Eclipse Types Selection List.
The settings column lays the study out on two tab controls. The first carries an Ephemeris tab holding the shared ephemeris settings and date-range panels, and a Natal Data tab holding the natal record fields and the Transit Orb. The second carries an Eclipse Types tab holding the Eclipse Types selection list, and an Aspects & Natal Bodies tab holding the Aspects table and the Natal Bodies list.
Events Table Columns
The events table shows the columns below. Several columns are hidden by default, as the table notes. Right-click any column header to show or hide a column, as described in Choose Events Table Columns. The headers of the coordinate columns follow the study's Reference Plane: they read Longitude and Latitude in the ecliptic plane, and Right Asc and Declination in the equatorial plane. The ecliptic-plane header text is listed here.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Date Time | Date and time the eclipse occurs, in the application's long date-time format. Always the first column, and it cannot be moved. Visible by default. |
| Eclipse Type | Which kind of eclipse the event is. Visible by default. |
| Saros Series | The eclipse's Saros series, as a whole number. Visible by default. |
| Member Number | The eclipse's member number within that series, as a whole number. Visible by default. |
| Eclipse Longitude | Primary coordinate in degrees. Hidden by default. |
| Eclipse Sign | Position as degrees, sign and minutes of the zodiac. Visible by default. |
| Eclipse Latitude | Secondary coordinate in degrees. Hidden by default. |
| Cycle Angle | The cycle angle that was matched between the eclipse and the natal body, in degrees. Hidden by default. |
| Phase | Aspect phase: New, Waxing, Full or Waning. Visible by default. |
| Separation | Angular separation between the eclipse and the natal body, in degrees. Visible by default. |
| Natal Body | Name of the natal body being activated. Visible by default. |
| Natal Body Longitude | Primary coordinate in degrees. Hidden by default. |
| Natal Body Sign | Position as degrees, sign and minutes of the zodiac. Visible by default. |
| Natal Body Latitude | Secondary coordinate in degrees. Hidden by default. |
| Natal Body Distance | Radial distance in astronomical units (AU). Hidden by default. |
| Natal Body Speed | Speed in degrees per day. Hidden by default. |
| Event Interval | Elapsed time since the previous event in the list. Hidden by default. |