Your birth chart is a map of the sky for the minute and place you were born. The Astrolas Birth Chart tool draws that map from your birth data, lists every planet by sign, degree and house, and puts the interpretation into tabs you can read one at a time.
This guide follows the page as it works today: the form, the result screen, the tabs, and a reading order that keeps you from drowning in detail. If you are new to the idea itself, what is a birth chart is a short primer.
What the tool does
The tool calculates the positions of the Sun, Moon and planets for your birth moment, plus the Ascendant, the house cusps and a long list of extra points: Chiron, Lilith, the lunar Nodes, the Part of Fortune, the Vertex, the four main asteroids and a few more. It draws them on a chart wheel and pairs each placement with written interpretation. Positions come from the Swiss Ephemeris, the same data professional software uses. Why Swiss Ephemeris explains why that matters.
What you need before you start
- Your birth date.
- Your birth time, ideally from a birth certificate or hospital record. The Moon, the Ascendant and every house depend on it. See why birth time matters.
- Your birth place, down to the town or city.
No account is needed to calculate a chart.
Step by step: filling in the form
Open the Birth Chart tool. The panel says "Pick a saved profile, or enter birth data to see a new chart." Under New chart from birth data you will find:
- Name. Any label. It only shows on the chart.
- Day, Month, Year. Picked from dropdowns.
- Hour / Minute. The hour list runs from 00 (12 AM, midnight) to 23 (11 PM), so you do not have to convert to 24-hour time yourself. If you have no time at all, pick Unknown Time.
- City / Location. Type the city, or a latitude and longitude, and choose from the suggestions. This sets the coordinates and time zone.
Press View Chart. Above the fields there is also an AI Quick Input box where you can type something like "March 15, 2026 3pm in New York" and press Parse to fill the form for you.
The result screen
The page heading reads "Natal Chart Interpretation". The Birth Data Details panel repeats your name, your birth time in local time with its GMT offset, the same moment in UTC, and the coordinates. Check this first. A wrong time zone is the most common reason a chart looks off.
Above the wheel sit four controls:
- Switch Profile swaps to another chart.
- Display holds the house system (Placidus or Whole Sign Houses), theme, size (S, M, L) and a Bodies list where you switch each planet and point on or off. The house system switch only changes the wheel; the written interpretation still uses Placidus. If you are unsure which to pick, read Whole Sign vs Placidus.
- Share builds an image in Landscape 16:9, Square 1:1 or Story 9:16, in dark or light, and can also create a public link anyone can open.
- Export copies the chart, downloads a PNG, or prints a card or PDF.
Next to the wheel is a Chart data table: every planet and point with its sign, degree, minute and house, an R mark for retrograde planets, and the Moon phase you were born under. There is a CSV button if you want the numbers in a spreadsheet.
The tabs, one by one
| Tab | What you get |
|---|---|
| Overview | Planet balance by hemisphere, quadrant and element houses, with short readings |
| Life Chapters | A Zodiacal Releasing timeline of your life periods, with peak periods marked |
| Planets | Each planet's meaning, its sign and house, its aspects with orbs, and a long reading |
| Houses | House by house readings |
| Midpoints | Planets sitting on the midpoint of two others, with orb and aspect settings |
| Aries Point | Planets near 0ยฐ of the cardinal signs |
| Minor Planets | Nodes, Chiron, Lilith, Vertex, Fortune and the asteroids |
| Dispositors | Rulership chains, in Modern or Classical rulers |
| Stellium | Tight clusters of planets |
| Interceptions | Signs swallowed inside a house |
Some sections are free and some are not. When this guide was written, a guest could read most of the Overview, the Life Chapters timeline and the full Sun write up on the Planets tab, while the rest of the Planets tab, Houses, Aries Point, Stellium and Interceptions showed a lock icon with a price and asked you to log in. The wheel and the Chart data table are open to everyone.
How to read the result
Take it in this order rather than top to bottom:
- The big three. Find your Sun, Moon and Ascendant in the Chart data table. Those three carry most of your personality. The big three shows how they work together.
- The chart ruler. The planet that rules your rising sign, and the house it sits in, often names the theme of the whole chart. See chart ruler explained.
- Houses. Note which houses hold several planets. That is where your life gets busy. The twelve houses explained is the quick reference.
- Tight aspects. On the Planets tab each planet lists its aspects with the orb in degrees and minutes and whether it is applying or separating. Anything under two degrees deserves a note. Keep aspects explained handy.
- The Overview tab. Once you know the pieces, the hemisphere and element balance tells you the overall tilt.
- Extras last. Midpoints, dispositors and the Aries Point add depth. They make more sense after you know the main placements. Midpoints astrology 101 is a good start if you want to go further.
If you want a fuller checklist, how to read your birth chart in 10 steps walks through a complete reading.
Tips
- Switch off the extra bodies in Display the first time you look. A wheel with only the ten planets is much easier to read.
- Look for the R next to a planet. Retrograde planets in the natal chart explains what it changes.
- The Life Chapters tab uses dates, not just ages, so you can hold your own past years up against it.
- Save the page address. The URL holds the full birth data, so opening it again brings back the same chart. How to save and compare charts covers the rest.
Questions people ask
What if I do not know my birth time?
Choose Unknown Time. The planet signs will be correct for almost everyone, but the Ascendant, the houses and possibly the Moon sign can be wrong, so read those sections loosely.
Why does my chart differ from another site?
Most gaps come from a different house system or a time zone error. Check the UTC line in Birth Data Details, then try the other house system in Display.
Is the chart itself free?
Yes. The wheel, the planet table and several tabs are free for guests. Some deeper interpretation sections are paid.
Try it with your own chart
Fill in your details, confirm the UTC time, and start with your Sun, Moon and rising sign. You can open the tool directly at /birth.