Are Right Ascension Coordinates Visual-Based As Well as Valid?

I have been getting more fascinated with fixed stars since checking
out fixed stars on Kepler 7. I have been wondering about right
ascension fixed star coordinates. Are they visual based coordinates?

Richard Nolle...

RA/declination (equatorial) coordinates are neither more nor less visually
based than (ecliptic) longitude and latitude. Coordinate systems are
different, but no one is superior to another; any more than the metric or
English system can be said to be superior or inferior. These are ways of
measuring things: the thing measured remains the same, only the system for
describing it is different.

Are conjunctions and oppositions involving stars with planets and the
angles valid. Could they be as important as parans and alignments.

Richard Nolle...

Absolutely, yes! Particularly conjunctions, I'd argue. But remember that
actual conjunctions will involve only those stars along the ecliptic; such
as, for example, next month's Moon-Spica conjunction (occulation, on FEB
17).

According to Kepler program:

Note that if two planet are conjunct in right ascension, then they
culminate together and they anti-culminate together. Another term
for "culminate" is "conjunct the MC in right ascension". Another
term for "anti-culminate" is "opposition the MC in right ascension".
In the listing above, two celestial objects that are conjunct in
right ascension will culminate and anti-culminate together. If the
two celestial objects are listed as opposition in right ascension,
then as one celestial object culminates, the other anti-culminates
and vice versa.

Some of the RA conjunctions and oppositions that I have are Mercury
oppose Menkar which I feel might figure into my Dyslexia as well as my
need to raise awareness of others with learning disabilities and their
being misdiagnosed as bipolar or schizophrenic. I read that Mercury in
paran with Menkar has to do with speaking for the collective. My Sun
is conjunct Arcturus which I read has to do with needing to create a
better way of life or a new way of doing something. My Moon is
conjunct Sadalachbia which is a star associated with luck of hidden
things and people,and I wonder if that could be associated with
fortune in occult and Astrology. My Sun is oppose Capulus,and I read
that has to do with intense male passion. Interestingly,my Mercury is
oppose Tertia-Gorgonia,and I wonder if that can be communicating with
passion which can lead to losing my head. I have Mercury conj
Nekkar(head of Bootes)which can be about thinking of a new way of
life. My Mercury is conjunct Brachium(a star in Libra),and I wonder if
it has to do with justice and social reform.

I appreciate any insights. I am looking forward to really focusing on
the stars in Astrology. I also wonder if projecting stars onto the
eclptic is a valid method.

Richard Nolle...

A problem with projecting stars onto the ecliptic, as opposed to dealing
with those that are actually there, is that you end up with a great many
more apparent conjunctions than there are in reality. You could have a
star which is near the pole being 'conjunct' a planet on the ecliptic,
when in reality the two are on the order of 90 degrees apart in
declination - in short, nowhere near each other in the sky.