STARCONNECTIONS
Birth chart basic
Astrodienst is an astrological service website from astro.com, very handy to make a quick birth chart if you do not have the software.
Below I will guide you through how to set up your chart and which information you need to draw your own.
Below, you find a pdf download of an empty chart to practice with.
Click on the button "Astrodienst free chart", then choose your option, for the example below I chose for the guest user.
Follow my instructions further down. I hope it's clear.
The sample chart date I used was a Solar eclipse in 1965
for no specific reason.
I filled in a gender, the event chart will show up different.
Ones you press continue, you get a personal story of the transits for that day. Very cool. But!
Scroll down to the bottom of that page till you see "View natal chart with transits" and click.
Now you have your birth chart with the transits. Transits are the placement of celestial bodies at that moment. Now click at the top "without transits" and you get your chart clean of any frills necessary. You can use the same information on the page with or without transits. I think it's more clear without when it's the first time you see your own birth chart.
This is the information we want to work with.
At the bottom, you see AC and MC under it.
AC = Ascendant the Eastern horizon at the time date and place.
The Ascendant in this sample is 27 Sag 9' which means the rising sign is 27 degrees and 9-degree minutes in Sagittarius. I use equal houses so all cusps of the houses are 27 degrees and 9-degree minutes in each of the other 11 signs.
The MC stands for Medium Coeli and is called The Midheaven. In equal house system, the MC is 27 degrees and 9 minutes as well but in Virgo. The chart from Astro Dienst gives a Scorpio MC. That is due to the equal and unequal house systems.
I leave out Uranus Neptune Pluto and Chiron. The True Node stays.
The True Nodes are the North Node and the South Node always exactly opposite of each other.
Do not confuse the glyph of the North Node with the glyph of Leo. They look nearly the same.
I use Mean Nodes, there is little difference, for now, that is not important.
With equal houses, we do not need to use the other information that comes after the AC.
That is for unequal house systems.
There is a way to redo the settings at Astrodienst I believe but I'm not sure of that.
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Don't worry for now what this all means. Just get familiar with the glyphs and their names.
The empty chart is good to practice with for the order in which the Zodiac signs are placed.
Download and print the empty practice chart or draw a circle on a piece of paper with a drafting compass or a breakfast plate and divide into 12 sections.
Determine in which sign and how many degrees in that sign the AC falls. Use a pencil and write on the empty chart AC and the degrees. Fill in the glyph of the sign and draw the other signs around within there 30 degrees section.
If your AC falls within the first 15 degrees of that sign fill the sign in the first section where you see 1 that is the first house. Is your AC in one of the last 15 degrees fill the sign where the AC falls in the section with number 12, the12th house.
This is not a rule, it depends how you draw the horoscope. The AC is always the Eastern horizon.
Download an empty chart
to practice