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AstrologyNotes Astrological Knowledge Base
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An orb, short for orb of influence, is the margin of error above and below an exact aspect an astrologer chooses to permit, and still consider the aspect meaningful, important, or worth looking at. In ancient astrology, orbs were considered a sphere of influence around the planet, and differed by planet rather than aspect. The concept of moeity was traditionally used to determine the influence of one planet over another by aspect. In the late 19th century astrologer Alan Leo pioneered the use of orb allowances by aspects between the planets, and this is the method most astrologers use today. A notable exception are very traditional systems such as horary astrology.
Orbs are necessary because aspects are generally considered to be meaningful even if they aren't exact, and also because exact (also known as partile) aspects in charts are extremely uncommon.
For instance, the exact angle of the trine aspect is 120°0'. If an orb wasn't used, hardly any charts would count as containing trines in them, because it is very rare for chart points to be exactly 120°0' away from each other - or exactly any other distance which is exact to the arc minute, for that matter.
Without using an orb for the trine aspect - for every chart point, there would be only two out of the 21600 arc minutes in every chart at which another chart point could be located and still count as being in trine to the first chart point. For example - someone with sun at 7°29' Leo would only have their sun count as being in trine to some other chart point if the other chart point was located at 7°29' Aries or 7°29' Sagittarius. Even 7°28' Aries or 7°30' Sagittarius just wouldn't count.
But when orbs are used, a much wider range of angular distances qualify as valid aspects. Using a 1° orb for trines would mean any chart points within 119°0'-121°0' of each other would qualify as being in a trine aspect to each other, while using a 9° orb for trines would mean any chart points within 111°0'-129°0' of each other would qualify as being in a trine aspect to each other.
An orb is typically stated in terms of a number of degrees, and on occasion arc minutes may be mentioned as well.
The following are all valid ways of stating an orb: 8° orb, 1/2 degree orb, 20 minute orb, an orb of 40', 6.5° orb.
The aspect the orb is being applied to is also usually specified somewhere, like "a square with a 9° orb" or "a 2°-orb semisextile".
To find the range of angular distances that is being specified for an aspect by a given orb, you subtract the orb from the exact angle of the aspect to get the lower limit of the range, and add the orb to the exact angle of the aspect to get the upper limit of the range.
For example - a square aspect has an exact angle of 90°, and someone is using a 5° orb for it. To get the lower limit, you subtract 5° from 90° to get 85°, and to get the upper limit, you add 5° to 90° to get 95°.
This means the range of angular distances being considered a square, in that person's opinion, is 85°0'-95°0'. Any chart points from 85°0'-95°0' away from each other will qualify as being in a square aspect, in that person's opinion.
The orbs which astrologers choose to use for various aspects, as well as the rationale for choosing those orbs, can vary greatly from astrologer to astrologer.
It is commonly thought that the more exact an aspect, the more significant and meaningful the aspect is, and the more strongly and noticeably the tendencies signified by that aspect will play out. Yet, wider-orbed aspects are frequently considered to be meaningful as well, even if the tendencies signified by them are considered to play out more weakly than a more exact aspect.
So, some astrologers may prefer to use relatively wide orbs, because they prefer not to possibly miss anything. Others may choose to use relatively narrow orbs in order to be able to more easily zero in on the strongest, most exact aspects. Or, they may have other reasons for choosing the orbs that they choose.
If an astrologer uses a narrow orb for an aspect, it doesn't necessarily mean that they think that that aspect with a wider orb is totally invalid - they might just be trying to focus on the more intense aspects.
Conversely, if an astrologer uses a wider orb for an aspect, it doesn't necessarily mean that they think that aspect is actually effective for the full breadth of that orb. They might just be undecided as to what orb would be best, and want to see everything that might possibly be at all important.
The maximum orbs within which the aspects are definitely effective and meaningful (rather than merely considered, in someone's opinion, to be effective and meaningful) are currently unknown.
For every aspect there is probably a low orb that virtually all astrologers would agree is definitely an effective aspect - for instance, probably just about all astrologers would agree that conjunctions are effective at least up to 4°. But beyond that, there may be much disagreement as to the maximum orb at which the conjunction is still definitely effective. Some might stop at 8°, others at 10°, or even 12° or beyond.
Until an objective test is somehow devised to ascertain what the outer limits of the aspects' effectiveness really are, the "correct" maximum orbs will remain a matter of opinion and guesswork.
Traditionally, each planet was thought to have its own sphere of energetic influence around it (varying by planet or luminary) and the strength of aspects between planets was measured by whether one planet's orb overlapped another planet's orb. Although the definition varied between astrologers, the term "orb" generally meant the radius of the sphere of influence around the planet. Moeity is half the length of the orb, and represents the point at which the planet begins to exert a noticeable influence in aspect to other planets. A planet is said to be applying or separating from an aspect if its moeity is touching the moeity of another planet. William Lilly used the following list of orbs and moeities (those who include the outer planets often use an orb of 5°)
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| Other things | Orb |
|---|---|
| Transiting aspects | 1° |
| Declinations (parallel or contraparallel) | 0.5°-1° |
| Conjunction of an eclipse to a natal chart point | 2.5° |
| Opposition of an eclipse to a natal chart point | 2° |
| Square of an eclipse to a natal chart point | 1° |
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