What is a birth chart?
A birth chart, or natal chart, is a map of the sky at the exact moment and place you were born. Picture yourself
standing at your birthplace, looking along the ecliptic, the path the Sun, Moon and planets travel across the sky.
The wheel flattens that view into a circle: the twelve zodiac signs around the edge, and each planet at the degree
it held when you took your first breath. Astrologers read it as a portrait of temperament, needs and the way you love.
Sun, Moon and rising sign
Your Sun sign is the one most people know: your core identity and the light you want to shine. Your
Moon sign describes your emotional world, what makes you feel safe and how you comfort others. Your
rising sign, or Ascendant, is the sign that was coming up over the eastern horizon as you were born.
It colours first impressions and the way you meet new people, and it sets the frame for the whole chart.
What are the houses?
The twelve houses divide the chart into areas of life, from self and money to partnership, home and career. We use
whole-sign houses, the oldest system in Western astrology: your entire rising sign becomes the first
house, the next sign the second, and so on around the wheel. All positions use the tropical zodiac,
where 0° Aries is fixed to the March equinox.
Why does my birth time matter?
The sky turns a full circle every day, so the rising sign changes roughly every two hours and the houses turn with it.
The Moon also travels about 13° a day and can change sign in the middle of your birthday. If you do not know your
birth time, tick the box: you still get accurate planets in signs, calculated for local noon, but no rising sign or
houses, and we tell you when your Moon sign is uncertain. A birth certificate or a parent's memory is worth checking.
How accurate is this chart?
Positions are computed with astronomy-engine, an
open-source astronomy library that agrees with professional ephemerides to within about an arcminute, far finer than
the one-degree marks on the wheel. Your birthplace sets the latitude, longitude and historical time zone, including
daylight saving time, so your local clock time converts to the correct universal time.
Is my birth data private?
Yes. Everything is calculated in your browser. Your birth date, time and place are never sent to our servers or stored
anywhere, and nothing is kept once you close the page.