Why DST is Important for Astrology

Time zones and Daylight Saving Time (DST) tables are extremely important for astrologers. We can hardly exaggerate how important they are. If we calculate a chart and assume that DST is observed when it is not, or vice versa, the chart calculations are off by one hour. When a chart calculation is off by one hour, the rising sign will be wrong about half the time on average. Also, on average about half of the planets will be in the wrong house. Almost all astrologers regardless of the astrological methods that they use, agree that an inaccuracy of one hour in the birth time is important.

The "Little Secret" that Causes Some Astrology Charts to Be Inaccurate!

It might seem simple enough to include DST information for any place at any time but it is not so simple! Many people, even astrologers, will be surprised that it is difficult to know whether a birth time is recorded in Eastern Time or Central Time for a baby born today in some places in the United States. For example, the State laws for Alabama state that the entire state observes Central Time but in some towns on the eastern border, people and even local governments observe Eastern Time! In some of these towns people sometimes use Eastern Time and sometimes use Central Time. Why this "insanity"? The reason is because these towns are near larger cities across the state border in Georgia and many people work and commute regularly to these cities. Rather than constantly change their clock times back and forth, they set their clocks to Eastern Time. However, rural areas and some neighborhoods within these towns may observe Central Time. The following cities in Alabama use Eastern Time even though the entire state observes Central Time: Phenix City, Valley, and Lanett. There are other towns as well but a complete list of towns that use Eastern Time is difficult to locate and in some neighborhoods both the Eastern and Central Time Zones are used!

Ignoring These Problems Can Lead To
Embarrassing Results if You are a Professional

These are problems that astrologers typically ignore, but ignoring these issues can result in an astrology chart being correct. Periodically a major catastrophe occurs in a town and astrologers discover that their charts may not be correct as news reports bring attention to these complexities in time.

As if this was not enough, dozens of countries change the observance of DST in some of the provinces every year. One can never predict when DST will be observed in future years because we cannot predict whether DST will be observed and if it is observed, on what dates it begins and ends. If astrology software is not updated for decades, then an increasing number of charts are incorrect.

Another big problem is that the complex laws and rules for observing DST are not clearly known. Between 2010 and 2013 we obtained better historical data on DST for dozens of countries!

Our Commitment to Making Sure
Your Chart Calculations are Correct

In short, DST is a huge issue for astrology and it is an issue that astrology software companies are glad that many astrologers are unaware of. It puts less pressure on the software companies to make sure that their tables are correct. We have not waited for people to realize these issues are critical and we work very hard to ensure that the tables are accurate.

The two videos provide more information on this issue. The short video shows how Kepler detects problems like the towns on the east coast of Alabama, and the longer video gives more examples of these problems and other issues that can cause an astrology chart to be incorrect.