The sky right now
This page draws the sky as it is at this minute: where the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto stand in the zodiac, and where the lunar node is. The positions are tropical and geocentric — measured from the spring equinox, as seen from the centre of the Earth — the convention of Western astrology. They are calculated in your browser from a planetary theory and redrawn every minute while the page is open.
The chart is also turned to your horizon. It starts with the largest city in your browser’s time zone; type another city to change it. The Ascendant and the houses come from that place, with Equal houses: each house is 30° wide, starting from the exact degree of the Ascendant.
Switch to Vedic to see the same moment in the sidereal zodiac with the Lahiri ayanamsa: the nine grahas, whole-sign bhavas from the Lagna and each graha’s nakshatra and pada, in North or South Indian style. Choose “Pick a time” to cast the chart for another date and time instead — the night of an event, or a minute you want to look back on.
Reading today’s positions
The table lists each planet with its sign and degree, the house it is in, its essential dignity and its daily speed. The dignity column, which covers the seven traditional planets, tells you which of them are at home today: a planet in a sign it rules or is exalted in works at full strength for as long as it stays there, while one in its detriment or fall is hampered until it moves on — about two and a half days for the Moon, weeks for the Sun, Mercury and Venus, six weeks or more for Mars, a year or more for Jupiter and Saturn. Speed shows how far the planet moves in a day; a planet moving unusually slowly is close to turning around.
The slow planets set the background of a period: Jupiter stays about a year in a sign, Saturn two and a half years, and Pluto anything from twelve to more than thirty. The fast ones set the tone of the day: the Sun moves about a degree a day, Mercury up to about two and Venus up to about one and a quarter, and the Moon about 13°, changing sign every two and a half days. The coloured lines on the wheel are the major aspects between them — conjunction, sextile, square, trine and opposition — drawn when two planets are within the usual orbs.
Retrograde planets
A planet is retrograde when, seen from Earth, it appears to move backwards through the zodiac. Nothing reverses in space: the effect comes from the Earth and the planet moving at different speeds round the Sun, as a slower car seems to go backwards when you overtake it. The table marks a retrograde planet with an R after its position and a negative speed.
Mercury turns retrograde three or four times a year for about three weeks, Venus every nineteen months or so for about six weeks, and Mars every two years or so for two to two and a half months. Jupiter, Saturn and the outer planets are retrograde for four to five and a half months of every year. Traditional astrology reads a retrograde planet as weakened, its matters delayed, revisited or reversed; in horary a retrograde significator can mean a change of mind or a return.
Ask a question of this chart
A chart of the present moment is exactly what horary astrology reads. Ask a question, cast the chart for the minute it was asked and the place it was asked, and the answer is read from that chart. The AstroGPT app starts from a chart like this one. In Western mode it takes the same positions, with Equal houses from the Ascendant, for the minute you open a chat and ask, at your phone’s location, and reads your question from them; Vedic mode casts the sidereal chart of that minute and reads it as Prashna. Nothing from your birth chart goes into it.
To see how such a chart is read — significators, applying aspects, the Moon’s course — start with the horary astrology guide. For your own natal chart, use the birth chart calculator or the free kundli.
Everything here is offered for reflection and entertainment.