Extended Fixed Stars Catalog
Beyond the four royal stars sits a wider field — Antares, Sirius, Vega, Fomalhaut, Sirrah, Capella, Procyon and dozens more. This tool reads the priority list from Swiss Ephemeris’s sefstars.txt, computes each star’s precessed position, and reports every conjunction and opposition to your natal points within tight orbs.
sefstars.txt as the source
Swiss Ephemeris ships a curated star catalog (sefstars.txt) that pairs each entry with a precise epoch position and proper motion. The tool calls swe_fixstar_ut for every priority entry and applies precession to your birth time, so each longitude is exact for the date you actually have, not for J2000.
Conjunctions and oppositions
Both axial directions are reported. A conjunction places the star’s colour directly on a planet or angle; an opposition places it across the chart, where it answers and provokes the natal point from a distance. Default orbs are tight: one degree for conjunctions, fifty arc-minutes for oppositions.
Why a priority list, not all stars
The full catalog has thousands of entries. Most have no traditional reading and would dilute the signal. The priority list keeps stars that classical and modern sources actually wrote about — Robson, Ebertin, Brady — so every contact you see has interpretive ground under it. The reading stays state-language, never deterministic.
Pair with the smaller Fixed Stars view
Start with /fixed-stars for the four royal stars and the most-cited classics. Use /fixed-stars-catalog when you want the wider net — uncommon contacts that explain a placement other tools left blank. Both feed the same natal-chart context, so cross-reading is direct.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many stars are in the priority list?
Around two hundred — enough to catch most meaningful contacts, few enough that every reported conjunction has a written tradition behind it.
Do star positions really change?
Yes. Precession of the equinoxes shifts every star roughly fifty arc-seconds per year along the ecliptic, and proper motion adds a small extra drift. Swiss Ephemeris applies both, so a 2026 chart and a 1900 chart see the same star at slightly different longitudes.
Are oppositions weaker than conjunctions?
Tradition treats conjunctions as primary and oppositions as secondary, with a tighter orb. The colour still arrives, but as response and tension across the chart rather than as direct overlay on a point.