OCT 12, 2009 - Centaur Astrology is, at first glance, the Holy Grail for iPhone astrophiles. I say at first glance because I just found it only an hour before the deadline for this column, which means I barely had time to research and write up this description - never mind actually download, install and test the software. And I say Holy Grail because it appears to be a genuine real astrology app for the iPhone; able to calculate and draw up an actual horoscope (viz. an astrological chart for whatever time, date and place the user inputs). At $49.99, it's priced right for such an app, if it performs as advertised. (Sure, there are plenty of cheap "Sun Sign astrology" iPhone apps, but they're entertainment-only astro-crack like those silly newspaper columns on the funny pages.) This on the other hand looks like the real thing. Screen shots show an attractive and accurate chart wheel and aspect grid. Features described include a built-in atlas with over 27,000 places, the ability to save chart data and do solar returns; nine house systems and eleven aspects (user-defined orbs), and calculations accurate to the nearest minute of arc. Frankly, this is way too new an app (released only last month), and I haven't had time to download and work with it, so I can't recommend it yet. I'll get back to you, time permitting. (Until then, caveat emptor may be the safest bet.) But I promised I'd share the moment I ran across a real astrology iPhone app, and Centaur Astrology is the first thing I've seen that looks like it might be near the mark.
