CWAstEph Asteroid App by Mark Pottenger

✓ My top pick

Windows-based software for asteroid calculation only (making it also more affordable for asteroid work).
While this is a stand-alone Asteroids Calculation app, Mark also has a CCRS Horoscope app that integrates with it. So, you have the choice of software for full astrology chart work, but you don’t need a chart calculation app to use this CWAstEph software. This gives you the advantage of choice.

The CWAstEph Asteroid App is super easy to use, with a single page input and very few fields to fill in (though, you’ll need to remember to change the birth time/date to its UT/GMT time as the input for the calculations), once you have it set up for your computer system. So, it’s very quick to use!

You have choices as to what kind of list you want to calculate (zodiac, alphabetical, and by degree sort) and a number of choices for which available sets of asteroids you want in the file, including the entire set of Named asteroids, which I recommend. You can also create your own asteroid sets with the bundled ASTNUM app.

Sirius by Cosmic Patterns Software, Inc

Developers of the Windows-based astrology software programs: Pegasus; Kepler; and especially SIRIUS which has a comprehensive asteroid calculation add-on feature for astrologers.

SIRIUS has the capacity to provide complete listings of all of the astrologically-available officially Named asteroids, available in Zodiac (Longitude) order (necessary for serious asteroid work!), as well as Alphabetical, and in also sorts of various degree orders (such 45˚  for Cosmobiology charts). Though the website claims the Asteroids add-on to have 38,000 asteroids, but that figure includes asteroids that have not yet been officially named. But the Asteroid section of the website might not be up-to-date.

SIRIUS firstly has an optional Asteroid add-on program of files for more than 19,000 Named asteroids (plus thousands of so-far Unnamed asteroids that later may receive names).
Plus, SIRIUS has a feature that automatically downloads extra asteroid files/names (providing you have the Sirius optional extra Asteroid app installed) from the ASTRODIENST website, while you are calculating a list when connected to the internet! So you always have the latest list that is available!

There is also an option in SIRIUS to create a small number of your own category groups of asteroids.

All asteroid listings appear on-screen and are exportable as txt or pdf files.
Before each calculation, you can choose how many columns you want per page, and which information to include, such as Name, ID Number, Longitude, Declaration, Speed, etc… See my procedure and general suggestions, below, under Here’s My Method in the Mac Solutions section.

Cosmic Patterns software applications, developed by David Cochrane, are Windows-based, but also run well with Parallels (+ your own Windows OS) on a Mac. (See my instructions below for running and using these Windows apps on your Mac.) You can also check out David Cochrane’s YouTube videos.

Solar Fire by Esoteric Technologies

Windows-based programs for all systems of astrology. Especially recommended for their comprehensive SOLAR FIRE program, and their Asteroid Add-On category-editing supplemental software, although it only contains 10,000 asteroids and many of those do not yet have names. But this number can be boosted by connecting to the ASTRODIENST site (see below*) for (tediously!) downloading more asteroid files, one file at a time, which I used to do years ago!

SOLAR FIRE does uniquely have great asteroid aspects-to-planets listings within your asteroid category files (plus quite a few categories are supplied for you there) that can, themselves, be easily edited and created (I had built up 300 of my own categories in SOLAR FIRE, though each category is incomplete without all the Named asteroids I have available in SIRIUS and now CWAstEph — but still very useful for the quick access to asteroid aspects within your categories.

SOLAR FIRE also runs well on Parallels on the Mac (actually, better than on a PC!).

Astro Gold by Cosmic Apps, Pty Ltd

I am including Astro Gold here, as this astrology chart calculation software for Mac also now includes 131 asteroids (after the addition of another 80, as of August 26 2024). And the app is being continually updated and expanded, so I’m expecting more asteroids to arrive later — the limit may also be due to the necessity of icons to be assigned to asteroids, so they can be placed on the wheel (I scribble their names in on a printed chart by hand from the data files).

This is my chart calculation app of choice. Runs natively on Apple devices.

Astro Gold has versions for Mac desktop, iOS devices, and also Android. But at this stage, only the Mac desktop version has the extra asteroids (apart from the six that are often included in astrology apps), which can be shown on the chart wheel via their icons, and also in the Aspects listing, using their icons; plus now in Ephemeris files of your choosing!

This app can be helpful if you are just starting out with asteroids and want to ease in slowly. It has a clean open interface, offering many useful features without being bloated or complicated.

Astro Gold is available internationally, and has Support people in various countries. 

Astrodienst AG

A website (pronounced “astro-deenst”), not an app, but they have been preparing raw astronomical data, for decades, for software developers to use in all types of astrology software applications. And, like Mark Pottenger, they have also been preparing asteroid data for us.

You can view the full list of available asteroids on their site page All Named Asteroids with links to the NASA-JPL page for further astronomical information on each asteroid.

There is a download section of ASTRODIENST‘s website for downloading individual asteroid files for use in astrology apps that calculate asteroids. So,  if you already have the bulk asteroids CDs/files in SOLAR FIRE, you can add more to the Solar Fire backend in File Manager. Remember, without their asteroid software, you won’t be able to use these asteroid files, as they need to be manually placed into the correct asteroid folders in your app’s file manager. You can find the download page HERE.

A practical warning about asteroid downloads from ASTRODIENST ! :
Never download complete asteroid folders from the ASTRODIENST listings as they contain a huge number of Unnamed Asteroid files along with some Named ones, and this will bloat your software and computer’s storage drive and calculation capacity (your calculation app might even freeze under the strain), plus it places a strain on Astrodienst’s server. I don’t think there is a way to differentiate the Named ones as yet, but keep checking in with them. (In the olden days, I used to hand-pick and download every file I needed by it’s ID number, which you still need to do in ASTRODIENST! It’s a labour of love.)

ASTRODIENST will now allow you to download up to 3,000 asteroids in one 24-hour period (any more can overtax their server). But, again, I suggest you stick to only the ones that are pertinent, as you need them. It’s very tedious!

This recent video interview, below, with Alois Treindl, the founder of Astrodienst, recorded by Chris Brennan on May 24 2018, is a rare look at the beginnings and purpose of Astrodienst and its services. You may not be aware of what has gone on behind the scenes within the global astrology community since the 1980s, and how significant, and indeed vital, Alois Treindl’s contribution has been to astrology software, generally.

It is possible to run Windows apps on your Mac.
There are two different ways to do this:

• FIRST OPTION: if you still have an Intel-based Apple computer (iMac, MacBook, or Mac, before the M series Silicon Apple computers that were released in 2022), you can partition part of your computer’s storage drive to install Boot Camp for free from the Apple site.
  Boot Camp is an interface that runs like a separate computer allowing you to add the Windows Operating System to a partitioned area of your Mac’s storage drive. But you have to provide the Windows 10 OS, so you’ll have to hunt around for that as Micrsoft no longer sell that version.
  — The downside is that you will always have to reboot your computer between using the macOS and WindowsOS, as though they are two separate computers.
  So if you use the Mac side of your computer for your astrology work, you’ll need to put the asteroid PDF you calculate onto a thumb drive, or send it to a cloud storage service (Dropbox, Sync [✓], ProtonDrive [✓], etc), to download the asteroids PDF onto your Apple desktop.
  You will find complete instructions for Boot Camp here:
  https://support.apple.com/boot-camp/
• The BETTER OPTION: Download a ‘virtual machine‘ (VM software) on your Mac to mimic a computer.
  This is software that runs on your Mac’s desktop like an app, and simulates a Windows computer.
  It provides an interface between the macOS and WindowsOS.
  There are several Virtual Machines you can try, depending on whether your Apple computer has the original Intel or the new Silicon chip.
  Though, apparently Fusion by VMware will run on both Intel and Silicon based Macs. I have not tried Fusion, myself, so can’t advise here. It is premium software. But if I do try it, I’ll report back here.
  I had initially tried a couple of the free ‘open source’ virtual machines and gave up (they might be better now.). Just too complicated to install (some YouTube videos do exist now to help with this). So, if you’re fairly tech-savvy, you can check those VMs out via SourceForge, the best site for getting legitimate open source software.
• The VM software I have been using is Parallels. It is premium software, but may be worth the expense, if you want an easy installation.
  It provides a smooth virtual machine that is an interface between macOS and Windows where you can have Windows sitting on your desktop at any size like an app. You can then drag and drop files between the two desktops!
  — Just be aware, you’ll need plenty of free disk space to add Parallels + Windows + the CWAsteph asteroids to your Mac — but it is possible to put Windows (and the Asteroid App) on an external storage drive with only Parallels on the Mac. 

As Parallels is Virtualisation software
(a ‘virtual machine’)
that runs from an icon in your Mac’s Dock,
there is happily no rebooting of your operating systems
when you’re switching from one to the other.
Windows can be treated like any other app
running on your Mac desktop,
even for sharing common file types
by drag & drop.

If Windows is not set to completely full-screen, you can access your Mac apps from the Dock for, say, TextEdit or Notes and drag downloaded files from the Mac Downloads folder straight into folders in Windows and vice versa!

• Great for downloading updates to the CWAstEph Asteroid App, as you don’t need to have Windows exposed to the internet for the download! You can use the Mac Download option instead, without Windows being open! Then just slide the update file into the Asteroid app icon in Windows and continue the installation as per the instructions.
• So, if you’re only using Windows for the asteroids, you won’t need Edge or Chrome, and you won’t get Windows viruses or malware.

Even though Apple’s Mac operating system updates are always free (thank you, Apple!), you may want to pay for Parallels updates each year if you upgrade your Mac OS, or Windows OS — but it’s not strictly necessary, although you lose Parallels Support and future updates without the update payment. (Parallels will send an email to remind you to update, plus you may get annoying pop-ups on your Mac when Parallels is open if you’re online.) And you can update any time.

You may think you don’t need the full set of Named asteroids, but would you really want to miss out on some of the newer ones such as #249521 Truth? Truth was the 249,521st asteroid to be discovered (there are millions up there, most without names yet!), so would not likely show up in smaller sets of asteroids provided by some software developers.

Lastly, I keep a PDF of my personal asteroid list, in Zodiac order, in my Apple Books app, so the list is available to me on all my Apple devices. So, when references pop up in life, I can look them up in real time. (Ever the researcher!)

Disclaimer :

The above software applications are listed as recommendations for your consideration only. Kerrie Redgate is not financially affiliated with these software companies and can in no way be held responsible for your use of the above listed software or dealings with these companies, though they are recommended in good faith and from personal experience.