In the aspectarian listings in The New Standard Aspectarian, each page lists the aspect information for one day – the date shown at the top of the page.

Each page contains four columns of data, with each row (horizontal line of data) representing the information about one aspect.  

The column on the left shows the peak times of the aspects.  The second column shows the aspects themselves.  The two columns on the right show the positions of the aspect constituents.

In each day's listings, extra space is used to separate the aspects which peak before noon from those which peak after noon.


TIME

The column on the left shows the peak times of the aspects, to the nearest minute.

Peak times between midnight and 1:00 am are listed with a format that shows a zero instead of a twelve at the left of the colon – for example, 0:45 am instead of 12:45 am – to eliminate any possibility of ambiguity or confusion between, for example, 12:45 am and 12:45 pm.  In this format, 0:00 am means midnight at the start of a new day.  12:00 pm means noon.

Since the peak times are listed to the nearest minute, any aspect that reaches a peak during the 30 seconds before midnight is treated as belonging to the following day, and will be listed at the beginning of the following day with a peak time of 0:00 am.

The aspects in The New Standard Aspectarian are computed for the Pacific Time Zone.  As indicated in the column heading, either Pacific Standard Time (PST) or Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) is used, depending on the time zone actually in use on the given date.  Thus, if you are in the Pacific Time Zone, you never need to perform time conversions to use The New Standard Aspectarian.  However, if you are not in the Pacific Time Zone, you can use the following information to convert the indicated time to your time zone.


For the two days of every year when standard time changes to daylight time or vice versa, both time zones are utilized on the corresponding aspectarian page.  The break point between the listed time zones in both cases is 2:00 am of the departing time zone, in conformity to the time when the time zone officially changes by law.  The primary reason for doing this is to avoid repetition or loss of aspects.

On the day of each year when standard time changes to daylight time, 0:00 am daylight time (which corresponds to 11:00 pm standard time of the previous day) is actually one hour earlier than midnight standard time at the end of the previous day.  And so if daylight time were used for the entire day's aspect listings, the first hour of the day would correspond to the same time period as the last hour of the previous day, and any aspects which reach a peak during that one-hour overlap would appear in the listings for both days; the aspects shown for the first hour of the day would be the same as those which were shown for the last hour of the previous day.

On the day of each year when daylight time changes to standard time, 0:00 am standard time (which corresponds to 1:00 am daylight time) is actually one hour later than midnight daylight time at the end of the previous day.  And so if standard time were used for the entire day's aspect listings, a one-hour gap would exist between the beginning of that day's listings and the end of the previous day's listings, and any aspects which reach a peak during that gap would not appear in the listings at all.

By utilizing both time zones for those two days of the year, repetition of aspects and loss of aspects are avoided.

In the computation of the aspect peak times, the difference (commonly known as delta T) between Ephemeris Time and Greenwich Mean Time is derived from data which is available from the U.S. Naval Observatory.


ASPECTS

The second column shows the aspects themselves, with non-lunar aspects (those which do not involve the Moon) offset a bit to the left for emphasis and conveniently rapid reference.

Standard astrological symbols are used for the Sun, Moon, and planets.  The parallel aspect symbol is shown with a small subscript, either c or o, to indicate parallel of conjunction or parallel of opposition, respectively.  This is done purely for the possible convenience of the user.  In point of fact, we have not observed any significant difference in the manifestations of these two kinds of parallel aspects.

Retrograde status is indicated by means of a small subscript R following the planet symbol.  However, the retrograde symbol is not shown with parallel aspects or stationary in declination.

A special note regarding dual-planet longitudinal aspects: Very early in the development of The New Standard Aspectarian, it was realized that the kinds of symbols that had previously been used to designate the various angles involved in dual-planet longitudinal aspects were hopelessly inadequate for use with this new set of aspect angles.  About half of the aspect angles used in The New Standard Aspectarian have no preassigned old-style symbols at all, and creating new ones of that kind for them would only serve to propagate the old system when it would make more sense to adopt a new system which reflects the reality of the situation more directly (and is easily amenable to unlimited extension if and when needed).  For this reason, The New Standard Aspectarian has adopted what should prove to become the new standard in terminology for this aspect category: fractional notation that directly indicates the fraction of 360 degrees which is represented by the aspect.  Thus, a trine is designated as 1/3, a square as 1/4, an opposition as 1/2, a sesquiquadrate as 3/8, a quincunx as 5/12, etc.  Only the conjunction is treated differently, and is herein designated as CON.

Aspects in the aspect category of stationary in declination also indicate the direction in which the planet was moving before becoming stationary in declination – for instance, stationary in declination northward.  It is emphasized that this indicates the direction of travel and not whether the planet is in north or south declination.  For example, a planet can become stationary in declination northward while remaining in south declination.


POSITIONS

The two columns on the right show the positions of the aspect constituents, to the nearest minute of arc, in the tropical zodiac.

Standard astrological symbols are used for the signs of the zodiac.  The retrograde symbol (small subscript R) is not used in the listing of positions.

Since the positions are rounded off to the nearest minute of arc, a rather strange-looking anomaly can occasionally appear.  The listings can seem to indicate that a planet is in a particular sign of the zodiac before it actually enters that sign.  For example, if there is an aspect involving a planet which is really at 29 degrees 59 minutes 47 seconds Virgo, the position of that planet will be shown as 0 degrees 0 minutes Libra (due to being rounded off to the nearest minute of arc) – and then, a short time later, the planet can be indicated as actually entering Libra.  This is not a computational error.  It is just an indication that a position roundoff has been performed.

Regarding the aspect category of cusp crossing, there are two ways in which a planet can enter a sign of the zodiac – namely, in direct motion and in retrograde motion.  Please note that when a planet is in retrograde motion and re-enters a sign of the zodiac, it is actually crossing the cusp (zero-degree point) of the sign that it is leaving.  For example, if a planet in retrograde motion leaves the sign of Aquarius and re-enters Capricorn, it is actually crossing the cusp of Aquarius,  and so its position will be shown as 0 degrees 0 minutes Aquarius.