use.
Recording a Birth Moment. Never make record of or state a birth hour as midnight, for the
day both begins and ends with midnight, and in time you yourself will not know which it was
- resulting in a tiny difference of twenty-four hours. The day begins with 0h; noon is 12h. A
minute before midnight can be 11:59 P.M., or 23:59h - but midnight is oh of the next day.
Time. Correction of Mean to Sidereal Time. In calculating the Sidereal Time for a given
moment of birth, add the solar hours elapsed since the previous noon to the Sun's noon
position at Greenwich as given in the ephemeris in Sidereal Time. (Apolo's Note: this applies
only if you are using an ephemeris with readings for noon; if using one for midnight, which is
easier, then add the solar hours elapsed since midnight on the start of the day of birth.) This
requires the further addition of a little less than ten seconds (9.86 seconds) per hour to
compensate for the difference between solar and sidereal time.
[A further correction for longitude is made by way of adjusting the Greenwich position to that
of the place for which the correction is made.]
Transit. The ephemeral passage of a planet over the place of any Significator, moderator or
planet, or any point where it forms an aspect thereto, whether in a radix, progressed, Solar
Revolution or Horary Figure. Transits are taken from the ephemeris for the current year.
Generally speaking the passage of the benefic planets over, or in aspect to, the radical and
progressed places of the several Significators is favorable; of the malefics unfavorable.
Kuno Foelsch, Ph.D., in his work on Transits, which actually treats of the Solar Revolution,
concurs in the suggestion that during the Middle Ages it became necessary to devise some
system of approximating future conditions, for the reason that Ephemerides calculated for
years in advance were not then obtainable. Speaking of Transits, he expresses the confident
belief that "other methods will eventually disappear, especially those which are dependent
upon hypothetical elements which have no connection with the actual astronomical positions
of the planets as recorded by scientifically operated observations."
Transit of a planet across the Sun. A transit of Venus across the Sun can occur only when
the Sun is within 1° 45' of the Node, and the Earth is passing the Node. These occur in pairs -
the last two in 1874 and 1882. The next recurrence will be June 8, 2004, and June 6, 2012.
Mercury transits are more frequent.