An Orb is something that occurs when two or more celestial objects and hypothetical points contact each other within a certain number of degrees, based on the laws of harmonics.
I use a wide orb (10-12°) for most planets and the lights and a smaller orb for fixed stars (3°) and asteroids (6°) for my person chart. In synastry, it may need to be a tighter orb because it depends on the awareness and consciousness of the other native.
Having said this, I have these thoughts about using or not using orbs…
- sign-to-sign can be felt
- sign-to-sign shows up over-time
- tight orbs are used to focus on the strongest feeling the native may have
- tight orbs are used to reduce number of aspects to look at
- conjunctions are most definitely felt even if having a loose (wide) orb or are sign-to-sign only
