Download Project 6a

Fall 2016: ASTR 2000 Observing Project #6a
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Astrological Birth Chart
YOUR ASTROLOGICAL BIRTH CHART
*CAN TURN-IN ONLY ONE OF PROJECTS #6a or 6b FOR CREDIT*
Purpose: To draw your own birth chart and see the arrangements of the stars and planets at the
time you were born. We’ll skip any kind of interpretation; there are as many interpretations as
there are astrologers. You can do that on your own with a professional astrologer if you like, if
that is within your belief system. This chart, however, will be an actual representation of the sky
and you can use it for any astronomical or astrological purpose you want. I’ve included a friend’s
birth chart as an example. Let’s step through this.
Part I: Constructing your Astrological Birth Chart (Can be group work)
Step 1: Use your birth information to obtain a birth chart.
You will need to know the date you were born, the time, and geographic location of your birth.
Don’t forget to use the appropriate time zone and consider whether you would need to correct for
Daylight Savings. While it is best to use an exact birth time, don’t worry if you can only estimate
the approximate time. If you do not know your birth time, use noon on the correct day! This
process will generate both a geometric display of your chart and specific assignment of planets to
zodiac signs and degrees within those signs. On the alabe.com chart the blue lines are trines
(120° apart) and the red lines are the squares (90°) and opposites (180°). These are basic
geometrical relationships between the planets that are also interpreted astrologically.
A good website for this calculation is: http://alabe.com (use another site if you prefer)
This website will draw your birth chart for you. Print it out.
The framework for your chart is a circle with Earth at the center. The circle is then divided into
twelve equal wedges, or “houses”. The Ascendant, or rising point is at the left of your circle, the
midheaven at the top, the descendant at the right, and the nadir at the bottom. The 12 houses start
at the Ascendant point and go counterclockwise around the diagram so the 12th house is the first
30 degrees (approx. 2 hours) up from ascendant. These are tied to the local horizon system and
never move. Over the course of a day, objects will rise at the Ascendant and set at the
Descendent, but the houses will remain fixed. The objects will therefore pass though all the
houses in reverse order in any 24 hour period.
Step 2: Determine your Rising Sign.
Which sign was rising at the time you were born? This will depend on the exact date, time, and
location you were born. Try to get not only the sign, but how far into the sign the Ascendant
point is. For example, the Ascendant for the birth chart on page 4 is the 14th degree of Libra, so
that specific degree of Libra goes on the Ascendant point.
Each sign is 30° wide, so 0° of Libra would go 14° above the Ascendant, since it rises
beforehand. That puts it near the middle of the 12th house. 30° of Libra (the end of Libra) is 12°
below the horizon, in the middle of the 1st house. Astrologically, it is said that this person has
“Libra Rising”. The other signs follow going counterclockwise around the wheel. Remember,
the numbers above are only for the specific chart on page 4; you’ll have to figure out your own.
Fall 2016: ASTR 2000 Observing Project #6a
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Astrological Birth Chart
Step 3. Plot your Planets, Sun, and Moon. [alabe.com site does this for you]
That was the hard part. Now, you just need to plot the locations of the Sun, Moon, and all the
planets at the time you were born. If you used the “alabe.com” site then this work has been done
for you, as well as listing the precise location of the planets down to a specific angular degree in
a specific zodiac sign.
Step 4. Your Astronomical Birth Sky
For this portion of the observing project you will need to use the SkyGazer, College Edition
planetarium program designed to run on your personal computer. For a detailed description of
how to setup this program on your computer, see Observing Project #6b. Once you have
SkyGazer working, you should be looking at the sky as it appears right now at San Francisco CA.
But for this project, you will want to see what the sky looked like when and where you were
born, so pull down the CONTROL tab, select the SET TIME window and enter your birth time
as close as you know it (use whatever date and time you used for the astrological birth chart).
Then select the SET LOCATION tab and select the location of your birth; it is sufficient to select
a large city near where you were born.
If you were born during the daytime use the CHART tab to de-select NATURAL SKY (should
turn the sky dark so you can see the stars). While you are at the CHART tab be sure you have
selected the PRECESSION EPOCH: “Use Chart Date”. Now in the DISPLAY tab, select
CONSTELLATIONS and ZODIACAL to place the zodiac constellation outlines on your sky
chart. If you do not recognize the outlines for these constellations, simply left click with your
cursor inside the constellation outline. This should bring up a description of the constellation
along with its name. If some other information comes up instead, move the cursor a little (but
still keeping it inside the constellation outline) and left click again. This should do the trick.
Find the location of the Sun and Moon in your birth sky. Write down the names of the zodiac
constellations in which your birth Sun and Moon are found. Note the difference between these
constellations and the zodiac Sun and Moon signs in your astrological chart. Also pick one of the
more obvious aspects (conjunction, opposition, trine or square) and write down the constellations
that the planets involved in this aspect are found. Again, compare these constellations with the
zodiac signs for those same planets in your astrological birth chart. Use this information to
answer some of the questions below.
Step 5. Oh, those Masons!
The secret society known as the Masons had a tradition of using astrological symbolism in the
buildings they constructed as well as timing events associated with their buildings using
astrology. They were secretive about this tradition especially since many of the buildings they
designed and constructed during the Middle Ages were churches. So, the Vatican was one of
their best customers but the Vatican did not approve of astrology; it was a “rival” belief system!
So it paid (literally) for the Masons to stay hush about their astrological interests.
Check this out. The masons designed and constructed a church at San Miniato in northern Italy in
the 13th century and chose the following date and time for the dedication of this church. Using
SkyGazer set the following time and place:
TIME: May 28th 1207 C.E. (select AD in SkyGazer) at Noon
LOCATION: Milan, Italy.
Fall 2016: ASTR 2000 Observing Project #6a
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Astrological Birth Chart
You may have to de-select NATURAL SKY and select the ZODIACAL constellations as you did
for your birth date. “Use Chart Date” for the precession epoch.
Note the planetary configuration; list all the planets you found to be conjunct at this time and
place.
Part II: Questions (To be done independently; recall the CU Honor Code):
There isn’t nearly enough room here, so write your answers on a separate sheet of paper, attach
your birth chart and hand it all in.
1. Use the location of the Sun relative to the horizons in your birth chart to estimate the time of
day when you were born. Is this estimated time consistent with your recorded birth time?
2. What was the phase of the moon when you were born? Explain how you figured that out.
3. What planets were up in the sky when you were born?
What planets would have been visible in the night sky about one hour after sunset on the day you
were born? Explain. If you are having a hard time figuring this out from your birth chart, go to
the Geology Library and check out a Voyager Sky Gazer CD. Follow the installation and setup
description detailed in Observing Project #6b. Enter your birth date and time instead of the
ancient times used in the next observing project. Then use the time window to move forward or
backward to night time so you can see the way the sky looked the night of your birthday!
4. Look for and identify any important configurations (called aspects) in your chart:
Oppositions: Two objects nearly opposite each other (6 signs apart) along the zodiac.
Conjunctions: Two objects very close together (< 8° apart) along the zodiac.
Trines: Objects 120° apart in the sky (4 signs apart). Three such trines can form an equilateral
triangle in your chart. (a “Grand Trine”)
Squares: Objects 90° in the sky (3 signs apart). Four “squares” would form a giant square in
your chart.
*** To count as an angular configuration, the planets must be within 5° of the above angles to
have a strong relationship according to astrology; within 8° constitutes a weak relationship ***
List at least three “aspects” that you found in your chart (i.e. all of the geometrical relationships
listed above).
5. Which planets cannot be found in opposition to the Sun? Explain.
6. Are any planets moving in retrograde motion when you were born? Explain what this means
and list all of these planets. The “alabe.com” site lists those planets in retrograde motion.
Retrograde motion is interpreted by astrologers to mean the planet’s basic quality is exhibited
negatively; i.e. if Mercury represents good communication, Mercury retrograde indicates
difficult communication. Planets in retrograde motion also have a certain specific aspect relative
to the Sun. From the list of aspects in question #4 (names emboldened above) choose which is
the correct aspect between the Sun and a retrograde moving planet… give one answer for
exterior planets (Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, etc) and one for interior planets (Mercury & Venus).
Explain.
Fall 2016: ASTR 2000 Observing Project #6a
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Astrological Birth Chart
7. Now compare the astrological birth chart to your birth sky. Specifically answer the following
questions and explain your answers:
a). What is the difference between your astrological Sun and Moon signs and the astronomical
constellations these objects were in when you were born? Explain why there is this difference
{Hint: the word precession should occur prominently in your answer!}
b). In question #2 above you determined the phase of the Moon when you were born from your
astrological birth chart; now determine the Moon phase from your birth sky. Is there a difference
between these two answers? Why or why not?
c). In question #5 above you listed at least 3 aspects in your birth chart. In Step 4 you were asked
to select one of these aspects and note the constellations in which the planets involved were
found. Does your birth sky show a different aspect between these planets compared to your
astrological birth chart? Why or why not?
8. Oh, those Masons! Use the sky chart for the dedication of the Church of San Minato to
determine what planets were in conjunction at that time. List them and explain why the Masons
chose that particular date and time (Step #5) to dedicate this Church. Why is it unlikely that any
church official attending the dedication would have noticed this “massing” of planets in the sky?
9. Some people think that the astrological influence a planet has on a person is through its
gravity. What is the gravitational force of Mars on a newborn baby? What is the gravitational
force of, say, the doctor in the hospital room at the time the baby was born. You may find the
information on the next page useful in your calculation.
Fall 2016: ASTR 2000 Observing Project #6a
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Astrological Birth Chart
FORCE OF GRAVITY: F = (G*M*m) / (r2)
where G = gravitational constant; M = mass pulling; m = mass being pulled; r = distance between
the centers of the two masses.
G = 6.67*10-8
M (Mars) = 6*1022 kg
M(Doctor) = 100 kg
(Gravitational Constant)
(Mass of Mars)
(Mass of very big Doctor)
m= 3 kg
(Mass of baby)
r(baby to Mars) = 1.5*1011 m
(Closest distance of Mars to Earth)
r(baby to doctor) = 1 m
Easiest way to compare the force from Mars and from the Doctor on the baby is to do a ratio:
F(Mars on Baby) = G*M(Mars)*m/r2 (baby to Mars)
F(Doc on baby)
G*M(Doc)*m/r2 (baby to Doc)
As you can see, if you divide one equation by the other, two of the numbers cancel out (G and m,
the mass of the baby). Use the above expressions to calculate the ratio of these two forces.
Based on your answer, does it seem likely that the planets have significant gravitational influence
upon a person’s life?
** Most astrologers do not interpret the influence of the planets in terms of physical forces.
Astrology remains a belief system, not a science.
Fall 2016: ASTR 2000 Observing Project #6a
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Astrological Birth Chart