Animations

Creator/illustrator: David E. Bustamante
Animator: Adrián Trigueros

Because complex astronomical phenomena or the spherical geometry of the celestial sphere is inherently visual, we are developing a dedicated series of animations. This collection will allow you to see the concepts in motion, illustrating subtle celestial phenomena, complex methods of celestial partition, and key procedural principles of interpretation. These animations are designed to eliminate ambiguity, providing unparalleled clarity on the structural dynamics necessary for profound technical understanding.

The video gallery is preceded by a description of each animation in the order in which they appear in the gallery.

First Animation: The Ptolemaic Method

Here’s an example of the Ptolemaic (or natural) method of celestial partition as correctly described by F.E. Robbins in 1940 (Tetrabiblos, 10, pp- 286-288). As varying diurnal arcs (cuspal degrees or points of the ecliptic) complete varying one-sixths in accord with their own ascensional times, the celestial engineer marks each cusp (house sector), where very ASC and MC invariably constitute six-sixths and three-sixths of their own diurnal and nocturnal arcs, respectively, even irrespective of the method of house division employed. Because the Ptolemaic/Placidus method is the sole method consistently or subsequently enforcing the same principle by which an ASC or a MC is ascertained cusp by cusp, only in said method are all cusps natural or organic, true cusps.

Second Animation: Proportional Times

This is yet another animation of the Ptolemaic method of celestial partition, commonly known as Placidus. On this occasion, however, the student can observe the characteristic succession of house cusps, for every diurnal arc or cuspal degree constitutes a function of its specific declination (linked to a specific date). Hence, they can see why no two cusps ever lie upon the same diurnal arc or track. This method, being natural, anchors the house system to the actual solar/ecliptic phenomenology. See the corresponding article here.

Third Animation: Polar Phenomena

This animation uses the Sun to describe the behaviour of the ecliptic at an extreme polar horizon, i.e. beyond 75º N or S, where the retrograde motion of the ASC/DES can be observed. In the first part of the animation, the sun occupies a segment of the ecliptic belonging to summer (summer sign), whereas in the second part, it occupies a segment of the ecliptic belonging to winter (winter sign). In this sense, in the first case we observe the midnight sun, when the sun and/or the signs it occupied during that season never set, whereas in the second case we observe the midday twilight, when the sun and/or the signs it occupied during that season never rose. Therefore, the population of these latitudes can never present (nor should they be expected to present) a summer sign below the horizon or a winter sign above it, which would betray or falsify the local human reality/experience. As soon as the sun reaches its lowest point upon the local horizon during the summer, it returns to its point of origin. In this sense, the north becomes the point of entry and exit of the sun and the corresponding signs. Vice versa during winter. Hence the conjunctions of the ASC/DES with the MC/IC. 

Fourth Animation: Uranus’s Ecliptic

We demonstrate that the behaviour of the ecliptic in Earth’s polar regions is not a geographical ‘glitch’ (inconvenient distortion) but the predictable result of our axial tilt. By comparing Earth’s solstice horizon (third animation) with the ecliptic of Uranus (fourth animation), we observe a nearly identical geometric pattern. These animations provide the visual proof that our local horizon is always a victim of obliquity, whether on a 23.5° tilt or a 97° one. Explore the beautiful mechanics of ingress and egress (in both animations) and the ‘Midnight Sun’/’Midday Twilight’ (third animation) across two different worlds.