3. Automatically generated chunks

The AAF provides several chunk types to store chart data, ie. positions of astrological factors such as planets and house cusps. These chunks are ment for submission of computed charts between applications.

Note that we strongly discourage storing chart data in a physical database! Computing the chart data takes only very few CPU time whereas a proper maintenance of a database containing pre-computed chart-data is a hairy task which is very likely to result in ambiguities and corrupt data which is definitely not woth the effort.

In position data chunks like #LPOS and #ZPOS, the ecliptic longitudes are associated with the astrological factors or bodies using the following abbreviations:

So  Sun           NN  North node           AC  Ascendant
Er  Earth         SN  South node           MC  Midheaven (Medium Coeli)
Mo  Moon          TN  True north node
Me  Mercury       TS  True south node
Ve  Venus                                  Cu  Cupido  
Ma  Mars          Ch  Chiron               Ha  Hades   
Ju  Jupiter       VS  Vesta                Ze  Zeus    
Sa  Saturn        JN  Juno                 Kr  Kronos  
Ur  Uranus        Pa  Pallas               Ap  Apollon 
Ne  Neptune       Ce  Ceres                Ad  Admetos 
Pl  Pluto         LL  Lilith               Vu  Vulkanus

3.1 The #LPOS chunk: Ecliptic longitude in the tropical zodiac

This chunk holds the ecliptic longitude of bodies with respect to the tropical zodiac. For example, assume an ecliptic longitude of the Sun at 183 degrees, 53 minutes and 2 seconds of arc. This information is represented in a #LPOS chunk as So03Li53:02.

Legal zodiac sign abbreviations are:

ar  Aries        cn  Cancer      li  Libra           cp  Capricorn   
ta  Taurus       le  Leo         sc  Scorpio         aq  Aquarius        
ge  Gemini       vi  Virgo       sg  Sagittarius     pi  Pisces          

Here is an example for a valid #LPOS chunk:

#LPOS:So03Li53:00,Mo29Le06:17,Me16Vi07:05,Ve16Sc27:32,Ma15Vi22:45,
      Ju07Sc20:20,Sa22Ta09:50,Ur08Li50:46,Ne28Sc44:10,Pl27Vi28:41,
      NN01Pi01:13,TN02Pi38:04,Ch08Ar16:43,LL02Vi39:29,Ce05Ta59:41,
      Pa28Aq31:25,JN25Ta35:19,VS17Li46:22

3.2 The #BPOS chunk: Ecliptic latitude

This chunk contains the ecliptic latitude of astrological factors or bodies. For example, Sa02s27:38 means Saturn at 2 degrees, 27 minutes and 38 seconds of arc in the south `s'. Northern latitudes are represented accordingly using an `n' as a delimiter between degrees and minutes of arc.

For example,

#BPOS:Mo00n19:21,Me00n52:52,Ve05s05:54,Ma01n09:03,Ju00n57:09,
      Sa02s27:38,Ur00n39:46,Ne01n38:48,Pl15n24:27,Ch02n37:50

3.3 The #ZPOS chunk: Heliocentric position data

This chunk contains the heliocentric positions of bodies. Note that #ZPOS chunks for heliocentric positions are correctly qualified only if the first field contains `So'. The other fields have the same format as those in #LPOS chunks:

#ZPOS:So,
      Er03Ar53:00,Mo03Ar58:40,Me10Ge01:16,Ve07Pi30:14,Ma04Vi22:29,
      Ju13Sc11:51,Sa17Ta28:06,Ur09Li07:23,Ne00Sg17:20,Pl27Vi16:22,
      NN01Pi01:13,TN02Pi38:04,Ch08Ar02:24,LL02Vi39:29,Ce25Ar12:42,
      Pa08Pi55:06,JN02Ta22:35,VS24Li03:39

3.4 The #GVAL chunk: Ecliptic longitude speed

This chunk contains the speed of bodies in degrees of ecliptic longitude per day. The delimiter bewtween degrees and minutes of arc is `d' for direct movement and `r' for retrograde movement.

#GVAL:So00d58:52,Mo11d46:36,Me00d55:35,Ve00d39:22,Ma00d38:04,
      Ju00d11:59,Sa00r02:25,Ur00d03:46,Ne00d01:29,Pl00d02:13,
      NN00r03:10,TN00d00:23,Ch00r02:42,LL00d06:41,Ce00r08:50,
      Pa00r10:00,JN00d05:03,VS00d30:58

3.5 The #HPOS chunk: Cusp positions

This chunk contains the ecliptic longitude of the house cusps 01, 02, 03 and 10, 11, 12. The other cusp positions are 180 degrees apart from the given ones respectively, so they can be computed very easily.

It is a good idea to make a separate #LPOS chunk containing Ascendant AC and Midheaven MC near the #HPOS chunks when generating AAF, since that makes it much easier to read for humans. The opposit points of the major axis, the Descendant and Nadir don't need to be explicitly exported.

For example,

#LPOS:AC24Sc10:54,MC13Vi41:01
#HPOS:PL,
      24Sc10:54,25Sg26:32,04Aq47:04,
      13Vi41:01,13Li57:05,06Sc25:54

The first field of a #HPOS chunk contains an abbreviation for the house system. In the above example we have a cusp table for Placidus houses as you can see from the following list of valid house system abbreviations:

PL  Placidus           GO  GOH (Koch)           CA  Campanus
RE  Regiomontanus      EA  Equal (Ascendant)    EM  Equal (Midheaven)
EV  Equal (Vehlow)     AL  Alcabitus            PO  Porphyry
TO  Topocentric        ME  Meridian             MO  Morinius

3.6 The #ASP chunk: Aspects

Con          0.00  Conjunct
Opp        180.00  Opposite
Sqr Squ     90.00  Square
Tri        120.00  Trine
Sex         60.00  Sextile
Qcx Inc    150.00  Inconjunct (Quincunx)
SSx         30.00  Semisextile
SSq         45.00  Semisquare
Ses        135.00  Sesquiquadrate
Qui         72.00  Quintile
BQi BQn    144.00  Biquintile
SQi SQn     36.00  Semiquintile
Sep         51.43  Septile     
Nov         40.00  Novile      
BNv         80.00  Binovile    
BSp        102.86  Biseptile   
TSp        154.29  Triseptile  
QNv        160.00  Quatronovile

House cusps are abbreviated as 01, ..., 12 and the major axis:

AC  Ascendant
IC  Nadir (Immum Coeli)
DC  Descendant
MC  Midheaven (Medium Coeli)