last updated July 8, 2007.

The package "Riyal_for_Windows.exe" contains version 3.13. Please go to the download page:

http://www.expreso.co.cr/centaurs/riyal.html

changes made from version 3.121 to 3.13:

- fixed last selected planet displayed in tables
- fixed convergence error (loop forever) in mundane longitudes
- fixed identification error in "test position accuracy" of asteroids
- fixed error trapping and handling of Swiss Ephemeris asteroids.

changes made from version 3.1 to 3.121:

- fixed error in oblique longitudes of objects without latitude
- added "in mundo" or "oblique" zodiacal longitudes
- mundo positions extended to most house systems
- added trapping of errors of chaotic Swiss Ephemeris centaurs
- fixed some problems with chaotic orbits in "swiss ephemeris" mode
- fixed issues in v.3.1 when terminating the program
- the "long" ephemeris file now comes included in the package
- fixed error in calculation of osculating elements in "swiss ephemeris" mode
- better Swiss Ephemeris file and range error trapping
- fixed error in positions of Jupiter through Neptune (3.101)

changes made from version 3.0 to 3.1:

- added user-defined list of Swiss Ephemeris asteroids
- added simple file error message at start-up
- added some missing simple input error messages
- re-designed "equatorial to zodiacal conversion" dialog
- more accurate planetary aberration algorithm
- better Nutation model (IAU 2000B)
- more Swiss Ephemeris integration
- revised delta-t for dates before 1620
- outer planets back to the DE406 standard


You can set Riyal version 3.1 to work with its own internal ephemerides or to use the external Swiss Ephemeris. You can also set it to use the Swiss Ephemeris only for the calculation of additional asteroids not covered by Riyal. Here are the new optional lines in the configuration file ("riyal.cgf"):

(line 18)  0  ;0=Riyal ephemerides,  1=user-installed Swiss Ephemeris
(line 19)  55 ;0 to 69=number of additional Swiss Ephemeris asteroids below:
(line 20)    1,    2,    3,    4,    5,    6,    7,    8,    9,   10
            14,   15,   16,   23,   30,   31,   47,   65,   75,   78
            80,   97,   99,  100,  120,  211,  273,  433,  464,  465
           466,  571,  944, 1181, 1198, 1221, 1405, 1488, 1566, 1685
          1862, 1966, 2063, 2095, 2212, 2284, 3200, 3361, 3552, 3753
          5143, 5335, 5786, 9509,20461

(18)- the eighteenth line tells the program wether to (="1") use the Swiss Ephemeris (if installed) to calculate the planets and asteroids, or whether to use (="0") Riyal's own internal, independent ephemerides.
(19)- the nineteenth line specifies the amount of additional user-selected Swiss Ephemeris asteroids. The maximum amount processed by Riyal is 66. If  "0" no additional asteroids are processed.
(20 and beyond)- the last lines contain the catalog number --separated by comas-- of additional Swiss Ephemeris asteroids selected by the user. The default list is given in groups of 10 and is right-justified for clarity, but this is not necessary, nor do the numbers need to be in order. The user is expected to over-write it with his or her own list.

Please read also the new "Accuracy and Sources" section of the manual.




Riyal was not designed with the Swiss Ephemeris software in mind, it does not need it and is completely independent of it; but once it is installed, Riyal can take advantage of it in several ways. However, the installation is the user's responsibility. If the Swiss Ephemeris options are chosen but its software is not correctly installed, Riyal gives some simple error messages and continues working without it. The Swiss Ephemeris is used exclusively to compute "raw" planetary positions.

The installation is done in 3 steps:

1-) place a copy of the Swiss Ephemeris library ( "swedll32.dll" ) in Riyal's directory.
2-) specify the path to the directory in your system where the ".se1" ephemeris files are stored
3-) make sure that you have all the necessary ephemeris files


STEP 1 - THE SWEDLL32.DLL LIBRARY:

Riyal uses the latest version of the swedll32.dll library. This file cannot be downloaded individually, it is contained in the full package available here:

ftp://ftp.astro.com/pub/swisseph/sweph.zip

Download this file and unzip it. It will automatically create a directory named "sweph" and a number of subdirectories. Open the directory and look into a subdirectory named "bin" for the file "swedll32.dll". Make a copy of it and place it in the Riyal directory. After that you can delete the "sweph" directory if you want because this is the only thing we need. It is recommended that before deleting it you go first to the subdirectory named "doc" and save a copy of the file "swisseph.doc" for later study.


STEP 2 - THE PATH TO THE ".SE1" FILES:

Since there are many astrological programs today that depend on the Swiss Ephemeris, there is a good probability that you already have at least one sub-directory in your system with some of the ".se1" files required. For example, Solar Fire 6 contains a subdirectory with many of them. To avoid having duplicate files unnecessarily in your hard disk, write down on paper the complete path of this subdirectory and proceed to step "c-" below.

In the absence of a Swiss Ephemeris subdirectory from a program such as Solar Fire, we may create a new "virgin" subdirectory inside the Riyal folder. Please follow the following steps:

a- unpack the full Riyal download package (15 files) to the default "C:\Riyal3" (you can choose any other path, this one is only for illustration).

b- make sure you place in it the copy of swedll32.dll

b- create in it a subdirectory named (for example) "ephe". Now write down on paper the path "C:\Riyal3\ephe"

c- open "riyal32.exe" and select "edit riyal.cgf" from the "Options" menu. This opens the configuration file in Notepad

d- find the 15th line of this file which by default looks like this:

C:\SWEPH\EPHE; path to Swiss Ephemeris files

   and replace it with (the capitals don't matter):

C:\Riyal3\ephe; path to Swiss Ephemeris files

e-) save the file and close Notepad. Now exit Riyal.


STEP 3 - THE ".SE1" EPHEMERIS FILES:

If you just made a virgin Swiss Ephemeris directory, you need to download the files necessary to calculate the Sun, the Moon (including osculating or "true" node and apogee), and the planets Mercury through Pluto, and place them in C:\Riyal3\ephe. If you don't download the external files detailed below for the period you need, the Swiss Ephemeris will calculate the positions by means of its internal "Moshier" ephemerides, which are less accurate than Riyal.

The files are available at Astrodienst:

ftp://ftp.astro.com/pub/swisseph/ephe/

Open this address in your browser and examine the files and subdirectories it contains. The files you need at this stage depend on the time-range you want to cover:

5401 BC to 4802 BC:   seplm54.se1,   semom54.se1
4801 BC to 4202 BC:   seplm48.se1,   semom48.se1
4201 BC to 3602 BC:   seplm42.se1,   semom42.se1
3601 BC to 3002 BC:   seplm36.se1,   semom36.se1
3001 BC to 2402 BC:   seplm30.se1,   semom30.se1
2401 BC to 1802 BC:   seplm24.se1,   semom24.se1
1801 BC to 1202 BC:   seplm18.se1,   semom18.se1
1201 BC to  602 BC:   seplm12.se1,   semom12.se1
 601 BC to    2 BC:   seplm06.se1,   semom06.se1
   1 BC to  599 AD:   sepl_00.se1,   semo_00.se1
 600 AD to 1199 AD:   sepl_06.se1,   semo_06.se1
1200 AD to 1799 AD:   sepl_12.se1,   semo_12.se1
1800 AD to 2399 AD:   sepl_18.se1,   semo_18.se1
2400 AD to 2999 AD:   sepl_24.se1,   semo_24.se1
3000 AD to 3599 AD:   sepl_30.se1,   semo_30.se1
3600 AD to 4199 AD:   sepl_36.se1,   semo_36.se1
4200 AD to 4799 AD:   sepl_42.se1,   semo_42.se1
4800 AD to 5399 AD:   sepl_48.se1,   semo_48.se1

most people will only need the lunar and planetary positions from 1800 to 2400, in which case only 2 files are needed:

ftp://ftp.astro.com/pub/swisseph/ephe/semo_18.se1
ftp://ftp.astro.com/pub/swisseph/ephe/sepl_18.se1

Next, you need to download and place in C:\Riyal3\ephe one separate file for each of the asteroids you selected in the personal list specified at the end of the "cgf" configuration file. For example, if you have selected asteroids Apollo, Damocles, Eros, Hidalgo, Phaethon, and Dioretsa, then your list should look like this (the actual list is expected to be a lot larger):

(line 19)  6   ; 0 to 69=number of additional Swiss Ephemeris asteroids below
(line 20)  1862, 5335, 433, 944, 3200, 20461

and the files are downloaded from:

ftp://ftp.astro.com/pub/swisseph/ephe/ast1/se01862s.se1
ftp://ftp.astro.com/pub/swisseph/ephe/ast5/se05335s.se1
ftp://ftp.astro.com/pub/swisseph/ephe/ast0/se00433s.se1
ftp://ftp.astro.com/pub/swisseph/ephe/ast0/se00944s.se1
ftp://ftp.astro.com/pub/swisseph/ephe/ast3/se03200s.se1
ftp://ftp.astro.com/pub/swisseph/ephe/ast20/se20461s.se1

Each of these files covers the period from 1500 to 2100. Note that they are separated in subdirectories depending on the asteroid's number, in multiples of 1000. Asteroids 1-4 (Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta) are treated as a unit and use files similar to those of the planets and the Moon. Thus, for the period 1800-2399 you have to download:

ftp://ftp.astro.com/pub/swisseph/ephe/seas_18.se1

Riyal will give an error message for each case in which it does not find the corresponding asteroid file, telling you the number of the missing asteroid. If your list includes 69 asteroids, you must carefully and patiently download 69 files. The maximum number of asteroids that can be included in your personal list depends on your screen resolution:

 800 x  600 =  69
1024 x  768 =  90
1152 x  864 = 108
1280 x 1024 = 132


THE NAMES AND CATALOG NUMBER LIST:

Before making your personal selection of asteroids, you need a list of the available names and their catalog numbers. Astrodienst provides a special file with asteroid names and their respective numbers that is periodically updated. When calculating the asteroid's position, its name is retrieved from this list. It is available here:

ftp://ftp.astro.com/pub/swisseph/ephe/seasnam.txt

Download this file and place it in the C:\Riyal3\ephe directory (or whatever directory you are using). Open it and use it to select the names you want and the corresponding catalog numbers needed to make the list appended at the end of the "riyal.cgf" configuration file as illustrated above. You can edit this list to modify the asteroid's name if you want.


THE LONG-RANGE ASTEROID FILES:

If you select the option to calculate the Moon and principal planets with the Swiss Ephemeris, if the "centaurs" option is also selected Riyal will try to calculate the centaurs and transneptunians with it, and you will need to download the corresponding Swiss Ephemeris ".se1" file for each of the distant objects in Riyal's internal list. Since not all of the objects have been numbered, some of them cannot be calculated with the Swiss Ephemeris. Presently (June 2007) there are 105 objects in the internal list, of which 27 are un-numbered; this means that if you want to work with the Swiss Ephemeris instead of Riyal's internal ephemerides to calculate centaurs and transneptunians, at least 78 additional files must be downloaded.

When working in "Swiss Ephemeris mode" the range of valid dates for the minor bodies is extended considerably. The internal Riyal range for minor bodies is 1702-2018, extended from 1 B.C. to 2100 for those that have been named (by downloading "long.fle"). With the Swiss Ephemeris Riyal assumes for the centaurs and transneptunians a time-range of 1500 to 2100 (the short ".se1" files), while in the case of the named objects (e.g., Varuna, Pholus...) a time-range of -3000 to +3000 is assumed (keep in mind, though, that some centaurs have chaotic orbits and cannot be calculated that far back or ahead), so for the named centaurs and transneptunians you must download the "long" version of the ".se1" files, available here:

ftp://ftp.astro.com/pub/swisseph/ephe/longfiles/


FINAL NOTE:

The Swiss Ephemeris design based on many external files is incompatible with Riyal's philosophy of compactness and self-sufficiency, however, installing it looks more complicated than it is, and it is the only way to give the Riyal user the ability to choose how many and which asteroids to display. Once learned it is very easy and you have to do it only once.

(additions and comments are welcome)


Juan Revilla