1. Harmonic Chart Wheels can Show Aspects in the Natal Chart:

In chart wheels of harmonic charts the aspect in the actual (first harmonic) chart can be displayed on aspect lines instead of the aspect in the harmonic chart. For example an opposition in the 5th harmonic chart might be an opposition, 1/10, or 3/10 aspect in the natal chart and if, for example, the aspect is a 1/10 aspect, then "1/10" is displayed on the aspect line. All aspects are shown as fractions of a circle.

2. More Primary Directions Features:

Some very technically advanced primary directions features have been added. Sirius 1.0 has a good set of options for primary directions with the ability to select the timing of primary directions according to Cardan, Ptolemy, Kepler, etc. In Sirius 1.1 the range of features for primary directions is expanded, and you can now produce primary directions listings:

3. Research Gauquelin Sectors

In Sirius 1.0 you can calculate the Gauquelin sectors for an individual but Gauquelin sectors were not available in the research section. Now the Gauquelin sectors are available in the research part of Sirius.

The Gauquelin sector and the percent through the sector is displayed for each person and at the end of the list the total number of charts in each Gauquelin sector and the average percent through the sector for these charts is displayed.

4. A List of hospitals is available for birth charts in the USA

Some cities are 10 miles or more in diameter. If a person is born on the east edge versus west edge of the city, there can be a difference in the house cusps of 10 or 15 minutes and in some cases even more. To obtain more accurate charts, you can now select the hospital where a person is born in many places in the USA (hospitals in other countries are not available).

When entering the name of a place in the data entry screen, a list of hospitals in the place being entered are displayed and you can select a hospital as the birth place. For example, if you enter "Los Angeles, c", then "Los Angeles, California" is displayed as the place and hospitals like "Edgemont Hospital" and it is noted on the screen that Edgemont Hospital is in Los Feliz (a part of Los Angeles) and "Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles. There are also health centers and hospitals shown where a person is not likely to be born. You can select an area for hospitals to be listed. Each minute of arc is very roughly equivalent to one mile so a setting of 5' of latitude and longitude displays hospitals very roughly within 5 miles of the coordinates used for Los Angeles. To see hospitals in a greater area simply select one of the selections for a greater area. You can also select "Match place entered" to type in the name of a hospital rather than display hospitals near the town or city that you are entering. If you select a hospital where a person is born, then the latitude and longitude of the hospital are used to calculate the chart and this results in more accurate chart calculations than if you select the city. Currently only hospitals in the United States are available. If we are able to obtain suitable databases of hospitals in other countries, these can be used to make available hospitals in other countries in future versions of Sirius.

5. More Aspect Grid Comparison with Customizable Orbs and No Chart Wheel

In Sirius 1.0 you could obtain an aspect grid that shows aspects between two charts but a small BiWheel was also included with it, and some customers requested the ability to obtain the aspect grid without the BiWheel. We have added this option to Sirius 1.1

The flexible aspect grid is the new aspect grid that has aspects that can be customized in a way that is similar to customizing the aspects in a chart wheel. The caption for customizing aspect grid on this feature is labeled “Customize Wheel”.

6. Importing of birth data in comma delimited standard text files and flexible format

Birth data in delimited standard text files can now be imported if the birth date and time are in a particular format. When importing comma delimited files the user is prompted to select a place if the place is not found in the database, thereby allowing importing of data when the names of places are not in the database. There is also a new option for importing birth data that is in a standard text format with the data in columns that is very flexible in that you can specify at which column each piece of data begins. These two new options for importing data make it possible to import birth data into Sirius that is in other formats than those provided in Sirius 1.0. Note that Sirius 1.0 has features for importing several formats of birth data that astrology software programs use for exporting and importing and these new features can be helpful when birth data is obtained from some source other than astrology software.

7. Arabic Parts AstroMap (shows where Planetary Pictures form)

This new AstroMap draws line of where the relocated Asc and MC are conjunct and opposition Arabic Parts formed between 3 planets. These are equivalent to planetary pictures formed between the angular house cusp and 3 planets, so this feature may be of interest to both astrologers who use Arabic parts and who use planetary pictures. For astrologers who use planetary pictures and the system of Uranian astrology developed by Alfred Witte, the 8 hypothetical Uranian planets can be selected. A very large number of lines are produced if all planets are selected and the ability to easily select the planets that are involved in the arabic part/planetary picture is very helpful, as well as Sirius's ability to select geographic areas of different sizes.

8. Customizing of colors in Time Line format

In Time Line format forecasts, the colors of hard, soft, and minor aspect time line bars can now be selected.

9. Removing Intermediate House Cusps from a Chart Wheel

Intermediate house cusps can now be removed from chart wheels while keeping the angular house cusps in the wheel. You can also remove the intermediate house cusp positions from the outer edge of the wheel. This feature was added because some astrologers use whole sign houses and do not need intermediate house cusps and they prefer to have the Ascendant on the left side of the chart wheel rather than 0 degrees of the zodiac sign that is rising.

10. Anareta (killing planet) added.

When selecting ancient western astrological information, the selection of the alcochodon has been changed to the selection of the alcochodon and anareta. Two different variations of the calculation of the anareta are provided.

11. Fixed Stars Report

An extraordinarily comprehensive and useful analysis of the mythology, legends, and astrological interpretations given by different astrologers of fixed stars can now be produced for planets conjunct over 300 fixed stars in a birth chart. Through an exhaustive research effort we have assembled this information so that you can more easily explore the effects of fixed stars in a birth chart.

As you know, in Kepler and Sirius tools are provided to help you study various astrological theories, such as the Degree Meanings Report which provides degree meanings for the planetary positions in a birth chart according to 11 different astrologers. This allows you to explore other degree meanings in addition to the Sabian symbol degree meanings popularized by Dane Rudhyar. The new Fixed Stars Report that is included in Sirius 1.1 extends this same kind of powerful and practical information to the area of fixed stars.

12. Planets in Houses in AstroMaps

AstroMaps generally emphasize aspect lines formed by the planetary positions with the relocated Ascendant and MC. In Sirius 1.1 we introduce the ability to include the influence of planets in houses as well. This is made possible by shading regions of the world in a Treasure Map where a planet is in a house.

13. New "Utility" features of Merging Columns in Text Files and Zipping Files

Sirius has evolved into becoming an enormous resource for solving many problems that you may encounter in astrology and sometimes outside of astrology. A new feature for merging columns in columns in two or more text files was added while we were conducting research on Gauquelin sectors and we wanted to merge results from several different analyses into one file. Rather than find a program to do this, we added this feature to Sirius.

We also added a feature to compress files into a zip file because the programs to zip files that are available by download over the Internet sometimes have restrictions and limitations and the process of finding such programs and installing them can be onerous so we added the ability to compress files. We did NOT add the feature of unzipping a zip file.

14. Selection of Essential Dignities in the Ancient Western Listing

You can now select from a list of different essential dignities tables for the ancient western listing. This feature is very helpful because ongoing research into ancient western methods is revealing that different essential dignity values were used at different points in history and by different astrologers.

15. Saving and restoring settings in the Graphic Ephemeris

You can now save the settings you have selected in the Graphic Ephemeris and restore them at a later time. This is helpful for astrologers who work intensively with the Graphic Ephemeris and different groups of settings that are often used.

16. Selecting a Series of Harmonic Returns More Easily

You can now easily select a series of planet returns. For example, you may wish to select the chart for the time that the transiting Moon forms multiples of 45 degree angles (8th harmonic, which are these 8 angles: 0, 45, 90, 135, 180, 225, 270, and 315 degrees) to the natal Moon approximately every 3 1/2 days. Another example are "enneads" which are the charts constructed for the time that the transiting Sun forms multiples of 40 degrees to the natal Sun approximately every 40 days. These charts can be selected in Sirius 1.0 and in Kepler 7, but they can be selected more quickly and easily in Sirius 1.1.

17. Saving and Printing Animated BiWheels, TriWheels, and QuadWheels

Animated BiWheels, TriWheels, and QuadWheels can now be printed and saved to file: After selecting an animated BiWheel, TriWheel, or QuadWheel, select the "Pause" button, and now a "Save" and a "Print" button are displayed, so that you can save the wheel being viewed to file or print it. We received requests for this feature from several customers

18. Order of Aspects in Time Line Format is More Flexible

The Time Line Format forecast information can now be displayed in order of either the transiting planet, the natal planet, or the aspect instead of chronological order. Many users especially find transiting planet order to be very convenient. When transiting planet order is selected, the transits are listed in the order of the most outer planet to more inner planets, so that transiting Pluto is listed first, followed by Neptune, etc.

19. User Defined Essential Dignities Table in Chart Wheels

You can now create your own essential dignities table. Even though Dorothean, Ptolemaic, and Egyptian essential dignities tables are already provided and most astrologers, who use essential dignities tables, use one of these 3 tables. Now a user-defined table capability is provided as well.

20. A Table of Asteroids in a Chart Wheel

A table that indicates the asteroids placed in a wheel can be included with the chart wheel.

21. AstroSignature Research with Only Charts with a Good Accuracy Rating

When conducting AstroSignature research, you can specify an accuracy rating of "AA", or of "A" or higher, or "B" or higher, for example, so that charts that have less accurate birth information are excluded. There is also a feature to skip the Gauquelin data and other research data that does not have a person's name assigned to it. This speeds up the research calculations and eliminates unnecessary information when, for example, you wish to only see charts of famous people. The name of a chart from the Gauquelin database may be, for example, "Gauq. Painter #1", and you may not wish to have this chart included in the research if you are doing research on painters, but wish to only research those painters whose names are provided.

22. New Planet Glyph Options

Optional glyphs for Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Eris have been added. There are now 3 Uranus glyphs, 2 Neptune glyphs, 4 Pluto glyphs, and 4 Eris glyphs.

23. Minor Improvements to the User Interface

There are several minor improvements to the user interface. We have a goal that each new version of our software should not only be more powerful but also even easier to use, and the improved ease of use often appears as information that is better organized or being able to access information more easily. For example, when customizing a wheel, it was not completely obvious that clicking on the planets or "Asteroids/Lots" check boxes in the "Planets" tab opened a window that allows you to select which planets, asteroids, and lots are desired in the chart wheel. This has been made more obvious by placing this text in a button rather than simply being a caption for the check box.

24. Export and Import Specific Wheel Styles

You can now export and import specific wheel styles, which provides you a way of transferring specific wheel styles rather than all wheel styles to another computer. This is a feature that is not important for most users but we have received an occasional request for this feature. To transfer a wheel style from one computer to another, export the wheel style, copy the exported wheel style file to the other computer and then import the wheel style.

25. Easier Backing Up of Files that You Have Customized

A feature to make it easy to backup files that you have customized has been added. You may, for example, customize a wheel style or a particular listing, aspects, or orbs, and you may wish to backup the file that this information is saved in so that if your computer should malfunction, you will not lose the customizing that you have done. In fact, this is very important to do. The file that nearly every user backs up is the birth data file because most users save birth data that has been entered, and an easy way to backup and restore this file is already provided. However, finding files for other customizing that you have done may not be easy, especially if you are not an experienced computer user. With Sirius 1.1, this problem has been solved and you can easily back up these files.

27. Margins of Reports Displayed on the Screen

Interpretive reports and listings that appear in the Interpretation Window can be saved with margins in HTML and PDF format in Sirius 1.1. In Sirius 1.0 and Kepler 7 an interpretive report saved in HTML format or PDF format does not have margins.

28. Default Pixel Density Setting for Saving Files in JPEG Format

Chart wheels and other graphic reports can now be displayed in JPEG format with a default pixel density. The following discussion is a bit technical and you may skip this information as it is not likely to be important for most users: Pixel density is a concept used by Adobe Photoshop and a few other programs to determine how large the image is. Not all software programs use this concept, and it is a feature available for images in JPEG format but not other formats supported by Sirius. Pixel density is often confused with the resolution of the image but it is not the resolution. Suppose you have an image that is 300 x 300 pixels. This is the resolution of the image, i.e. 300 x 300. This image can be displayed as a 1" x 1" image at a pixel density of 300 dpi, as a 2" x 2" image at 150 dpi, and as a 3" x 3" image at 100 dpi. The dpi (dots per inch) is the pixel density, which determines the physical size of an image given a particular resolution (in number of pixels in width and height). If you save a high resolution image in Sirius (for example, over 1,000 pixels in width and height) and you view the image in Photoshop at 72 dpi, the image is enormous, being well over 10 inches in height and width. To make the image smaller, you view it with a higher dpi. The higher DPI does NOT increase the resolution of the image; it makes the image smaller so that it appears as a higher resolution image (although its actual resolution has not changed) because it is displayed in a smaller, more compact area. Files in JPEG format can be saved with a default pixel density. For example, if you select 300 pixel density in Sirius, and save an image that is 1200 x 1500 pixels in resolution, it will appear by default in Adobe Photoshop as a 4" x 5" image. The size can be changed in Adobe Photoshop by changing the pixel density, but this is the default setting.

29. Improvements to Database of Famous People.

Some of these improvements can be obtained free of charge by installing the updates to Sirius 1.0, but some improvements are available only in Sirius 1.1. Improvements are new additions of famous people to the database and corrections to the birth data or notes on the famous person. Research into the data of famous people is ongoing.

30. Specifying a Date in a Planet Mandala

In a Planet Mandala a date can be displayed in the mandala. the date can be the date halfway through the time period of the Planet Mandala or it can be the date of the person's chart if this date is within the time range of the Planet Mandala calculations.

31. Quantitative Synodic Cycle Research

In this new research feature you select two planets and a price or other performance file (such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average, commodity, or stock price, for example), and see a line graph of prices plotted against each degree of angular separation. A single planet's position in the zodiac can also be selected. A comparison to prices or to daily percent price change can be produced. This is a feature that can be helpful particularly to researchers of financial astrology who are interested in the relationship of synodic cycles to prices.

32 Easier Selection of Frequently Selected Birth Data Categories

In the data entry screen, when selecting the category for birth data, the 15 most recently selected categories are displayed in the drop down list so that you can more quickly select categories that you use frequently.

33. Paran Maps

Paran Maps are now available as one of the AstroMaps. If selecting a Paran Map for the entire world, for example, it is not possible to display all paran lines because there are too many, so you may select the specific paran lines you wish to have. For smaller the geographic areas you can select more paran lines without having excessive overlap of lines.

34. Adjusting for Limitations in House Cusp Calculations of Ancient Charts

In Sirius 1.1 you can select a range of reasonable "delta t" values to obtain a range of reasonably accurate house cusps for ancient birth charts. Many of us have become so accustomed to the wonders of science and computer technology that we may not be aware of some limitations, such as the fact that house cusps cannot be calculated with complete accuracy for ancient charts, and therefore house cusps can be incorrect even if the birth data is correct for a chart calculated several hundred years ago or more. For birth charts before about the year 1700 and after about the year 2200 astronomers are unable to precisely determine the exact speed of rotation of the Earth, and consequently house cusps cannot be calculated within 1 minute of arc accuracy.

35. Advanced AstroSignature Forecast Feature: Exponential Summation

When creating forecast AstroSignatures you can now select Exponential Summation Percent and Exponential Summation Scaling factors. These are advanced features used in the new Tao Financial Forecast option to predict prices of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Exponential summation is a calculation that allows the effect of an astrological influence to have a cumulative effect on prices rather than ending when an aspect between two planets is out of orb. A simple example is this: suppose Jupiter trine Uranus is associated with a rise in prices. Rather than the forecasted price returning back to normal when the aspect is out of orb, the exponential summation calculation results in a longer lasting effect on prices that is different from simply making the separating orb larger.

36. Preventing Overlapping House Cusp Positions in Chart Wheels at High Latitude

In places with high latitudes, such as in Scandinavia, for example, a chart wheel with unequally spaced house cusps can have two house cusps so close together that the cusps overlap. Now the house cusps positions are separated from each other so they do not overlap. You can control the amount of overlap and remove this new feature entirely if desired.

37. DeVore Encyclopedia Included

In the AstroEncyclopedia feature of Sirius we have added the DeVore Encyclopedia. This comprehensive encyclopedia of astrological terms and definitions adds more information to the AstroEncyclopedia features in Sirius 1.0

38. Lagna Kendradi Vedic Dasa

You can now produce Vedic Dasas using the Lagna Kendradi method.

39. Background Images of the Vedic Chakras

You can now place a background image behind the Vedic chakra wheels

40. New Vedic Calculations

In the main Vedic screen various details like strength calculations, etc. can be displayed in the lower right corner. In Sirius 1.1 the following additional information can be displayed here if desire: Chart Summary table including deities, genders, colors, governance, caginet, varnas, gunas, abodes, dhaatus, periods, tastes, ritus, moola, and jeeva.

41. Select Only Eclipses that Aspect a Particular Degree

When viewing an Eclipse Map you now have the option to list only eclipses that occur at a particular degree or that are opposition, square, trine, or sextile this degree. This allows you to view eclipse maps that activate a particular zodiac degree area. You can specify an orb surrounding the degree so that you can, for example, view eclipses that occur across 3 degrees.

42. Maximum Point of Eclipse Indicated

In an Eclipse Map you can have the point where the maximum eclipse occurs be indicated with an asterisk. As with the starting and ending points of the eclipse, the date and time of eclipse maximum are also indicated.

43. New Graphic Ephemeris Options

You can now select a place for transit calculations and a house system so that transiting and progressed cusps are calculated with these values.

44. Select Only Eclipses that Aspect a Particular Degree

In the Business Manager feature you can now print a batch of envelopes as a convenience when you are sending mail to a group of clients.

45. Interactive AstroMap

When viewing an AstroMap, icons to the left of the AstroMap allow you to zoom in, zoom out, scroll, and scroll the AstroMap area being viewed directly on the AstroMap without leaving the AstroMap being viewed.

46. Other Features

There are many other minor improvements and perhaps also a few major ones that are not included in the above list. We may add to this list in the future as we notice other important new features that are not in the above list of new features.