Free Birth Chart Calculator: Find Your Sun, Moon and Rising Sign
When people say "I'm a Leo", they only mean where the Sun was on the day they were born. A full birth chart also has the Moon, the eight planets from Mercury to Pluto, and the rising sign and twelve houses, which can only be calculated with a birth time. Cast your chart first, then read it with the three steps below; it is far clearer than starting from a list of twelve Sun-sign personalities.
Free Birth Chart Calculator
Enter your date of birth, birth time and birthplace to get your Sun, Moon and rising sign, the sign, degree and house of all ten planets, the twelve house cusps and the major aspects. The birthplace sets the historical time zone and daylight saving time and determines your Ascendant and houses. Everything is calculated in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
Tropical zodiac, Placidus houses, true node. Enter the local clock time on your birth certificate; daylight saving time is removed automatically from the birthplace's time-zone history, so there is no need to convert it yourself. If your town is not listed, pick the nearest large city.
Reading your chart in three steps
- Start with the big three: Sun, Moon and Ascendant. Your Sun sign is who you want to become and the backbone of your life; your Moon sign is where your emotions and sense of security come from; your rising sign is the first impression you make and how you meet new situations. The three are often in different signs, which is why so many people feel they "don't fit" their star sign. See rising sign and Moon sign.
- Then see which house each planet is in. The twelve houses divide life into twelve areas: the 1st is yourself, the 7th is partners, the 10th is career. A planet does its work in the area of the house it occupies. Venus in the 10th house, for example, is often read as making a living through charm and a sense of beauty. See the ten planets and the twelve houses.
- Finally, look at the aspects. The angle between two planets is an aspect: trines (120°) and sextiles (60°) flow more easily, squares (90°) and oppositions (180°) are more tense, and a conjunction (0°) binds two forces together. Tense aspects are not bad; they are often where a person is most driven and most determined to break through. See aspects.
After these three steps you will have the outline of your chart. Advanced techniques such as transits (the current planets passing over your chart), progressions and synastry all build on a natal chart you already know well.
Why your rising sign needs a birth time
The Sun takes a month to change sign and the Moon about two and a half days, but the rising sign cycles through all twelve signs in a single day. It is the sign coming up over the eastern horizon at the moment of birth, and each time the Earth turns once, every sign rises once.
The signs do not take equally long to rise, either. For Taipei, our engine sampled every minute of a full day:
| Rising sign | Time on the horizon in Taipei |
|---|---|
| Aries | 1 h 30 min |
| Pisces | 1 h 30 min |
| Taurus | 1 h 41 min |
| Sagittarius | 2 h 16 min |
| Leo | 2 h 17 min |
| Scorpio | 2 h 17 min |
Taipei (25.03°N), one sidereal day from January 1, 2026, sampled every minute. Only the three shortest and three longest are shown; the full table and other cities are on the rising sign calculator.
Aries rising lasts only about 90 minutes in Taipei, while Scorpio rising lasts 2 h 17 min. So half an hour's difference in birth time can change your rising sign; knowing you were born "in the morning" is not enough. If you don't know your birth time, your Sun sign and most planets can still be placed; only the Moon may fall between two signs, and the Ascendant and houses cannot be determined. The calculator above says so plainly.
BaZi months begin when the Sun reaches 15° of a sign
Many people assume Chinese BaZi (Four Pillars) astrology and Western astrology have nothing in common. In fact they use the same Sun. A BaZi month does not start on the 1st of the calendar month but at one of twelve solar terms, the jie: Start of Spring, Awakening of Insects, Pure Brightness and so on. Each term is defined as the moment the Sun reaches a fixed degree of the ecliptic, and every one of them falls exactly in the middle of a zodiac sign, at 15°.
| BaZi month | Opening solar term | Sun travels | 2026 date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yin (Tiger) month | Start of Spring (Lichun) | 15° Aquarius → 15° Pisces | Feb 4 |
| Mao (Rabbit) month | Awakening of Insects (Jingzhe) | 15° Pisces → 15° Aries | Mar 5 |
| Chen (Dragon) month | Pure Brightness (Qingming) | 15° Aries → 15° Taurus | Apr 5 |
| Si (Snake) month | Start of Summer (Lixia) | 15° Taurus → 15° Gemini | May 5 |
| Wu (Horse) month | Grain in Ear (Mangzhong) | 15° Gemini → 15° Cancer | Jun 5 |
| Wei (Goat) month | Minor Heat (Xiaoshu) | 15° Cancer → 15° Leo | Jul 7 |
| Shen (Monkey) month | Start of Autumn (Liqiu) | 15° Leo → 15° Virgo | Aug 7 |
| You (Rooster) month | White Dew (Bailu) | 15° Virgo → 15° Libra | Sep 7 |
| Xu (Dog) month | Cold Dew (Hanlu) | 15° Libra → 15° Scorpio | Oct 8 |
| Hai (Pig) month | Start of Winter (Lidong) | 15° Scorpio → 15° Sagittarius | Nov 7 |
| Zi (Rat) month | Major Snow (Daxue) | 15° Sagittarius → 15° Capricorn | Dec 7 |
| Chou (Ox) month | Minor Cold (Xiaohan) | 15° Capricorn → 15° Aquarius | Jan 5 |
Solar-term times come from the site's BaZi engine (lunar.js); the Sun's longitude is computed separately by the birth chart engine, and the two agree to within 0.02°.
In other words, anyone born in the Yin (Tiger) month has the Sun in the second half of Aquarius or the first half of Pisces. BaZi cuts the year at the middle of each sign, Western astrology at the start of each sign, which is why a BaZi month and a Sun sign always look half a month out of step. For where the year, day and hour pillars fall in the sky, see BaZi vs. the birth chart.
How this calculator is set up
Astrology has its schools, and the same birthday can give a slightly different Ascendant or houses on different websites, usually because of the settings below. Our planetary positions have been checked chart by chart against two independent ephemerides and agree to within 0.01° (0.04° for the Moon), and the house cusps have been verified against the definition of Placidus.
| Setting | This site | Other common choices |
|---|---|---|
| Zodiac | Tropical (0° Aries at the vernal equinox) | Vedic astrology uses the sidereal zodiac, about 24° behind |
| House system | Placidus; whole sign houses where Placidus has no solution at extreme latitudes (never in Taipei; inside the Arctic Circle, Tromsø has 24 hours on the winter solstice with no solution) | Whole sign, Koch, equal houses; traditional astrology mostly uses whole sign |
| Lunar node | True node (North Node) | Mean node; the two differ by less than 2° |
| Aspect orbs | Conjunction and opposition 8°; square and trine 7°; sextile 5°; plus 2° when the Sun or Moon is involved | Varies by astrologer, commonly 5°–10° |
| Time zone and DST | Converted automatically from the birthplace's historical time zone, including Taiwan's daylight saving time between 1945 and 1979 | Some sites make you tick a DST box yourself |
| Bodies | Sun, Moon, Mercury through Pluto, plus the North and South Nodes | Some also list Chiron, Lilith or the Part of Fortune |
When comparing our chart with another site's, first check that the house system and birth time match. If you were born somewhere that observed daylight saving time (Taiwan did in several years between 1945 and 1979), the clock time on the birth certificate has to be moved back an hour; we do this automatically, and if another site doesn't, your rising sign may come out one sign off.
Where to start reading
A straight word: a birth chart is a language, not a prophecy
A birth chart draws the sky at the moment you were born so you can talk about personality and life themes in terms of planets, signs and houses. The planetary positions are astronomical fact and can be calculated very precisely; readings such as "Mars in Aries means drive" are astrological tradition, not scientific findings. It is a fine tool for knowing yourself and sorting out your thoughts, but it cannot make decisions for you. Everything on this site is for reference and entertainment only; for health, investment or legal matters, please consult a professional.
Want to see the same birth moment from another angle?
BaZi reads the balance of the Five Elements through the Four Pillars, and Zi Wei Dou Shu divides life into twelve palaces. Both make a good counterpoint to your birth chart.
Birth chart FAQ
Is a birth chart the same thing as a horoscope column?
No. Horoscopes in magazines and online use only the Sun sign and split the whole world into twelve groups. A birth chart is unique to you: two people born on the same day share a Sun sign, but with a different birth time and place their rising sign, Moon and houses can be completely different.
Can I get a birth chart without a birth time?
Partly. The Sun sign and the signs of Mercury through Pluto barely change in a day, so they can still be placed. The Moon moves about 13° a day and may cross into the next sign, in which case the calculator lists both possibilities. The rising sign and the twelve houses always need a birth time. Tick "Birth time unknown" and the calculator handles it this way.
Why do different websites give me different rising signs?
The three most common reasons: a slightly different birth time (in Taipei the rising sign can change after as little as 90 minutes), daylight saving time not removed, or a different birthplace. A different house system does not change the rising sign; it only moves the other house cusps.
Are the zodiac sign dates the same every year?
Not quite. The moment the Sun enters each sign shifts by several hours from year to year, so if you were born on a cusp day you need your actual birth time to know your sign; a date table is not enough. The actual range of cusp dates for 1950–2030 is on our zodiac sign dates page.
What does retrograde mean?
Retrograde is when a planet, seen from Earth, appears to move backward across the sky. It is an optical effect of Earth and the planet orbiting at different speeds; the planet itself never reverses. Planets marked R in the table and on the wheel were retrograde at your birth. The Sun and Moon are never retrograde. More in the ten planets.