About Astro Communications Services

Neil Michelsen had a vision when he began Astro Communications Services in 1973 - to provide astrological resources to the world. Thanks to Neil, a true pioneer in the field of computerized astrology, another programmer, Rique Pottenger, and our many ACS authors, we now offer a complete line of astrological books, charts, reports and software to meet the needs of people at all levels of expertise - from the student to the professional or teacher.

We are proud to continue our founder's vision into the 21st Century, and are committed to providing the highest level of quality in ACS products and services for many years to come.

AUTHORS

We are proud to offer publications, reports, and software that have been written by some of our country's most well-known and respected astrologers including Maritha Pottenger, Zipporah Pottenger-Dobyns, Kim Rogers-Gallagher, Steven Forrest, Marion March, Joan McEvers and Maria Kay Simms.

BOOKS

Astro offers books for beginning to advanced astrologers as well as technical publications (The American Ephemeris for the 20th and 21st Centuries, American and International Atlas, Michelsen Book of Tables), which are necessary tools for everyone aspiring to learn chart calculation.

The majority of our publications are geared toward areas that are of interest to a mass market (projecting future trends, relationships and compatibility, etc.), while we also offer books aimed at specific areas of astrological learning (asteroids, progressions, etc.), and the best-selling series, The Only Way to Learn Astrology, by Marion March and Joan McEvers, now translated into seven languages.

CHARTS

Variations in chart styles and types vary from a basic student chart, written and illustrated in an easy to understand format for beginners, to highly technical and advanced calculations for advanced astrologers, researchers, and teachers. We are also able to program custom calculations to meet specific requests of researchers in the astrological field. A recent addition to our chart line is the "Art Chart" featuring original artwork by Maria Kay Simms with adult or child versions of astrological illustrations.

In addition to basic natal, progressed, return, Hindu, horary, relationship and numerous other chart wheels (as outlined in our Technical Options Catalog), calculations are also available in other formats: calendar transits, transit listings, etc. - and all are available with either standard defaults (the most widely used) for house systems, etc. - or those preferred by individual customers, which allows us to serve astrologers from a wide range of diverse fields.

Additional products include fertility reports, biorhythms, and winning transits (an extremely popular product with gamblers!).

INTERPRETED REPORTS

Astro currently offers over 35 interpreted astrological reports which are written in an easy to understand format, so no prior knowledge of astrology is needed (the perfect choice for customers who do not wish to learn astrology, but simply want answers to the questions in their lives). The Planetary Guide to Your Future (describing day by day transits based on an individual's natal chart) and Your Year Ahead (based on a solar return) are two of our best sellers. Numerous reports are designed to address specific life areas (i.e., Your Professional Profile, Compatibility Profiles, and the Astrolocality Report.)

A truly unique and personalized report for children - Your Magical Child is a fully interpreted report dealing specifically with issues related to childhood for newborns to pre-teens. A fantastic gift for new parents and grandparents, this report is often purchased by professional astrologers for clients.

Many people who have been involved in the field of astrology have limited their learning or expertise to specific areas. With some of our new reports, they are able to explore new areas, which they can then incorporate into their practices. The perfect example is the newest addition to our product line, The Asteroid Goddess Report, based on the best-selling book, Asteroid Goddesses by Demetra George.

In addition, Astro offers a variety of reports that utilize a synthesized approach to chart interpretation, rather than what is commonly known as "cookie cutter" astrology (describing each element separately, many times with contradictory information). Overall themes of the chart are interpreted and described, based on the "Astrological Alphabet" developed by Zipporah Dobyns. Astro's best-selling synthesized reports are the Compatibility Profile series, available for romantic partners, parent/child, friends, business colleagues, or grandparent/child.

ELECTRONIC CALCULATIONS

Meanwhile, behind the scenes at Astro, there are custom programs running that are the backbone of all the work that Astro produces. Our astrological reports for individuals (as well as couples) must have completely accurate planetary position tables to reference, along with a database of coordinates and times changes for cities and towns throughout the world.

Ephemeris
The ephemeris tables, originally formulated and programmed by Neil Michelsen in the early 70's, have become the worldwide standard by which current astrologers and programmers check their calculations for accuracy. Then, over the next 20 years, people from all around the world came to Neil for help in getting certain calculations to run correctly via the computer. Today, we are still using the base calculation programming he designed. With regular updates of data obtained from the NASA - JPL division, those tables are consistently being revised to provide the most up to date positions available.

ACS Atlas
While the ACS Atlas contains the latitude and longitude coordinates, it also provides the time change tables that indicate how many hours from the 0 Time Zone (usually called GMT or Greenwich Mean Time) a city is located. This area required several years of research to determine the accuracy of when these countries, states, counties, cities and towns throughout the world actually made changes in how they recorded time of day. As there are no worldwide mandates that require everyone to switch from Standard to Daylight Savings time (at the same time), this was indeed a nebulous area to explore. In some cases, especially during times of war, when countries would independently change their local time to an hour earlier (effectively the same as Daylight Savings Time), the documentation of these changes became even more important. ACS continues to make updates to this database as documentation arises.

When preparing to erect any astrological chart with house divisions, one of the first steps is to convert the time of birth to Greenwich time (sometimes called Universal Time) in order to find out what astrological sign was rising at the exact time of an individual's birth. With the ACS Atlas, providing the accurate dates when each location around the world made changes from Standard to War or Daylight Time, you can rest assured that the chart will be correct the first time around.

Currently, we have Non-Exclusive Licensing Contracts for our ACS Atlas Database with over 100 companies worldwide. Although, this database was created to service the needs of the astrological community, it has grown in popularity and crossed over into other markets such as International Freight/Transportation, Dating services and Mapping/Locator services.

SOFTWARE

The Electronic Astrologer Reveals Your Horoscope is an extremely user-friendly program that features Astro's high quality accuracy at an affordable price. Voted the "Best Beginner Program" by American Astrology Magazine, this natal chart interpretation program is an excellent tool for beginning astrologers.

The Electronic Astrologer Reveals Your Future is the second in the series and combines both transits and progressions (current and future trends) in one program. Interpretations, based on ACS publications, far exceed those of most astrology programs in today's market. Our market has grown from beginners in the field of astrology to bookstores and metaphysical shops throughout the world.

The third program in the Electronic Astrologer Series - The Electronic Astrologer Reveals Your Romance - is a compatibility profile report for romantic partners, which was released to the public in the Fall of 2000.

By Spring of 2001, Astro had combined all three programs (previously on floppy disk) into a multi-program CD, which significantly reduced production costs, and provided an all-inclusive program for retail distribution.

PALS

Developed by Maritha Pottenger, the Personalized Astrology Lessons are a series of lessons encompassing all areas of astrological interest. Each of the lessons is related to the individual's birth chart to enhance the learning process. Complete with homework lessons, notebook and a natal chart, this Astro product is a unique and highly effective method of learning astrology.