How to Manually Import Additional Planets/Asteroids

Overview

NOTE: If you are using Optuma 2.0 or later there is a new procedure for importing Asteroids here.

The ephemeris includes six major asteroids by default, but it is possible to manually import additional planetary bodies to use in the ephemeris and Natal charts, and the astronomical tools:

Step 1: Download a list of all the asteroid names and codes by right-clicking here and selecting Save Link As and save the list to the following location:

C:/Program Files/Optuma

Step 2: Open the text file and search for the required asteroid, noting its code in the first column.

Step 3: Download the specific file for that asteroid from here. The folder you need to open depends on the code of the asteroid. For example, if you wish to import asteroid 020469 drop the first number of the code and locate folder ast20 (another example: codes beginning in ‘000’ are located in folder ast0).

Before continuing, you will need to use Windows Files Explorer to go to the C:/Program Files/Optuma folder and create a sub-folder using the same name as the folder from the FTP site the ephemeris file is located (ast20 for example).

Once the sub-folder has been created go back to the ephemeris FTP site, locate the file (e.g. se20469s.se1) right-click on it to Save Link As. Save the file in the sub-folder you created.

Step 4: Restart Optuma and open the Ephemeris. The imported data will now be available in the structure panel under Asteroids:

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Step 5: When expanding a planet list in the properties of any Astro tool a new section called Asteroids will be available. This section will contain any manually imported asteroids.

Once selected the indicator will update to use the manually imported asteroid in the tool’s calculations.