Free birth chart calculator

A birth chart, or natal chart, is a map of the sky at the minute and place you were born, as it looked from where you were. It records which sign of the zodiac the Sun, the Moon and the eight planets were in, the angles they made to one another, called aspects, and, with a birth time, the sign rising on the eastern horizon and the twelve houses that divide the sky around you.

Astrologers read it as a portrait of temperament rather than a forecast: the Sun as what you are growing into, the Moon as what you need, the rising sign as how you come across, and each planet as one part of you working in the style of its sign. The guide to reading a birth chart walks through the wheel in ten minutes.

The wheel, from the real positions of the planets at your birth; your Sun, Moon and rising signs with a reading for each; well-known people who share your Sun, Moon or rising sign; today's sky read against your chart; every placement with its degree and, with a birth time, its house; and the aspects between your planets, tightest first. Your Sun and Moon are read in full, and with a birth time so is the planet that rules your chart; Mercury, Venus and Mars in brief, or in full when one of them rules it; the rest by sign. The full written reading, a one-time purchase, reads every planet by sign and, with a birth time, by house, writes out every aspect and adds your year ahead. Positions come from astronomy-engine, an open-source ephemeris, in the tropical zodiac with Placidus houses, and agree with the Swiss Ephemeris to within about an arcminute.

Draw the chart anyway. Without a time it is cast for noon: you get every planet's sign and the aspects between them, but no rising sign or houses, and where the Moon or a planet changed sign during your birth date, the chart shows both signs rather than guessing. For one placement at a time with the uncertainty spelled out, try the Moon sign, rising sign or big three calculator.