The Astrology of Space - Matrix Software

The Astrology of Space
This definition may help to clarify some of the
confusion surrounding the use of the solar apex in
astrological work. The standard solar motion (listed
below) is the Sun's drift with respect to the stars,
which form the majority in the general catalogue of
radial velocities and proper motions (A to G mainsequence
stars, giants and super giants) and not the
right-angle motion of the Sun and other galactic
objects around the galactic center. The solar apex
value depends upon what group of background stars
we use to measure our Sun's motion and the more
distant the objects (such as globular clusters), the
more this apex approaches a simple right-angle to the
GC. In fact, if we remove the effect of solar motion,
the Sun and nearby stars are found to be moving at
right angles to the GC.
Astronomers do this to arrive at a value called the
local standard of rest. The local standard of rest is
arrived at by removing what is termed the basic solar
motion, and this motion is defined as the most
frequently occurring velocities in the solar
neighborhood, the "average" of local stars as
measured from their geometric centers, rather than
their centers of mass. Centers of mass for individual
stars are not known. Therefore, the apex of the Sun's
way (by definition) cannot be derived from the more
distant stars, but should be determined using
relatively near stars since it is a measure of the Sun's
drift with respect to the centroid of motion of the local
group of stars. It is similar to the slow drift to the side
that often occurs to powerboats as they plow through
the water. Astrologers will be interested both in the
solar apex and in the right-angled motion of our Sun
about the GC.
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