A live model linking real astronomy to astrology. The Sun, Moon, and all planets are computed from genuine ephemerides (JPL Keplerian elements + lunar theory), so any date is accurate to about a degree — including retrograde motion. Scrub time to watch planets move through the zodiac, the lunar nodes regress, and the chart's aspects form and dissolve. All views deliberately ignore Earth's daily spin — you're seeing only the slow orbital sky.
A wide view straight out along the ecliptic (gold line) — as if hovering above the spinning Earth, ignoring day/night. The chosen body stays centered while everything else drifts past it over time. The blue constellation figures are the real zodiac star patterns (toggle below); in sidereal mode a body sits among its true constellation, while in tropical mode you'll see the ~24° gap between the signs (named at the bottom) and the constellations — precession in action.
Planets on the 12-sign wheel; lines in the center are aspects — notable angles between planets. ℞ marks retrograde. Houses need a birth time + place, so they're omitted here.
Sun at center, planets on their orbits, plus Earth's Moon with its line of nodes (bold) and Lilith/apogee line. Zodiac directions ring the outside — that's the backdrop a planet sits "in" as seen from Earth.
Orbs used: conjunction/opposition 8°, square/trine 6°, sextile 4°.
Earth orbits the Sun in a flat plane. Projected onto the sky it's the ecliptic — the Sun's yearly path. The 12 zodiac signs are 30° slices of that circle from the spring equinox (0° Aries). Planets stay close to it because the solar system is nearly flat.
Planets never truly reverse. As faster Earth overtakes an outer planet (or an inner planet laps us), the planet appears to loop backward against the stars for weeks. Watch a planet's ℞ flip in the chart as that happens.
Angles between planets along the zodiac. Conjunction 0°, sextile 60°, square 90°, trine 120°, opposition 180°. "Orb" is how far from exact still counts. Astrologers read trines/sextiles as easy, squares/oppositions as tense.
A ~250 km "centaur" — half-asteroid, half-comet — on a 50-year eccentric orbit crossing between Saturn and Uranus. Discovered 1977; astrologers added it as "the wounded healer." Its steep, stretched orbit means it can sit well off the ecliptic, so watch it stray from the gold line in view 1.
The Moon's orbit tilts 5.15°, crossing the ecliptic at two nodes (☊/☋) that regress over 18.6 years. Eclipses only happen when a New/Full Moon lands near a node — watch the banner turn pink.
Positions: JPL Keplerian elements (planets), Meeus lunar terms (Moon). ~0.1–1° accuracy — for learning, not navigation. Pluto is least accurate.
Earth's spin axis wobbles like a top, tracing one full circle every ~25,772 years. This drags the vernal equinox — astrology's 0° Aries — backward through the constellations at about 1° every 72 years. The tropical zodiac is pinned to that moving equinox (so it tracks the seasons); the sidereal zodiac is pinned to the actual stars. They coincided around 285 CE and have drifted ~24° apart since. This section runs on its own multi-millennia clock, independent of the live sky above.
Earth's tilted axis (yellow) points at the pole star and slowly sweeps the dashed cone. The green disk is the celestial equator; the dashed ellipse is the ecliptic, ringed by the zodiac constellations. The red line is the vernal equinox — where the two planes cross — and it swings backward through the constellations as the axis precesses. Whichever constellation it points at is the current astrological "age." Press Play above.
The outer ring (gold) is fixed to the stars — the real constellations. The inner ring (blue) of tropical signs is tied to the pink equinox arrow. Press Play: the inner signs slide backward against the constellations. They line up near 285 CE (ayanamsa 0) and sit ~24° apart today — that offset is why a "tropical Aries" Sun actually rises against the stars of Pisces.
The Sun and Moon tug on Earth's equatorial bulge, sweeping the spin axis around a cone. The north celestial pole traces this circle among the stars, so the "North Star" changes over time: Thuban (~2800 BCE) → Polaris (today) → Vega (~13,700 CE). One lap ≈ 25,772 years, the "Great Year."
Earth spins tilted 23.4° from its orbital plane. Gravity from the Sun and Moon pulls on the planet's equatorial bulge, and instead of tipping over, the spin axis slowly circles — like a wobbling top — once every ~25,772 years. As the axis moves, so do the equinoxes (where the Sun's path crosses the celestial equator).
Western (tropical) astrology defines 0° Aries as the Sun's position at the March equinox, so its signs stay locked to the seasons but drift away from the star patterns. Vedic/sidereal astrology keeps the signs aligned with the constellations. The gap between them — the ayanamsa — grows ~50 arcseconds per year and is about 24° today. Toggle the live app above between tropical and sidereal to see every body jump ~24°.
Because the equinox slides backward ~1°/72yr, it spends ~2,150 years in each constellation — the astrological Ages. It moved from Taurus → Aries → Pisces (where it sits now) and is approaching Aquarius — the "Age of Aquarius." Exact dates vary by source because the real IAU constellations are unequal in width; this model uses equal 30° divisions.
Precession modeled as a uniform rate (linear ayanamsa). Accurate near our era; over many millennia the real rate varies slightly. Pole-star epochs are approximate.