Which aspects are counted

ChartLiving counts five aspects. Conjunction, opposition, and square count within 8°. Trine and sextile count within 6°. Houses are a separate fact: they exist only when a birth time was entered.

An aspect on this site is a named angle between two longitudes already on the chart. If the angle is outside those orbs, it is not listed. If it is inside, it is listed with the orb. Nothing in that row is a prediction.

The five angles

The separation used here is the shortest one, so the number under test sits between 0° and 180°. Each name is an exact angle plus a maximum distance from that angle.

Conjunction is 0°. It counts when the separation is within 8° of 0°.

Opposition is 180°. It counts when the separation is within 8° of 180°.

Square is 90°. It counts when the separation is within 8° of 90°.

Trine is 120°. It counts when the separation is within 6° of 120°.

Sextile is 60°. It counts when the separation is within 6° of 60°.

"Within" includes the boundary. A separation 8.0° from an exact conjunction, opposition, or square is counted. A separation 6.0° from an exact trine or sextile is counted. One step past that limit is not. A 9° conjunction is not a conjunction on this page. A separation 8° from an exact trine is not a trine here, even if another notebook still draws it. The trine and the sextile use the tighter orb. The conjunction, the opposition, and the square use 8°.

The aspect table lists the two bodies, the name, and the orb to one decimal degree. The orb is how far the pair sits from the exact angle. It is not a second score beside the name. If the pair has no row, it missed all five orbs. The table does not keep near-misses.

What is not scored

No other aspect name is scored. This build does not list a quincunx, a semisquare, a sesquiquadrate, or a quintile. A separation near 150° does not become an extra row under another name. Parallels are not in the list. There is no collapsed section of minor aspects waiting under the five.

The orb does not widen because two planets are traditionally called important, and it does not shrink because they are slow. Sun–Moon and Saturn–Pluto use the same 8° and the same 6°. ChartLiving does not keep a second orb table, and the calculator has no control for loosening the limits after the fact.

Only one name is kept when a pair is inside an orb. The check walks conjunction, then opposition, then square, then trine, then sextile, and stops at the first hit. In ordinary charts those targets sit far enough apart that a pair fits one name. The page does not print two aspect names for the same pair.

Which points can form a pair

The ten bodies are the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Every pair among them is checked against the five rules.

When a birth time was entered, the Ascendant and the Midheaven are on the chart too. The same five rules run on pairs that include them. A Sun square the Ascendant inside 8° can appear as a row. That row is still a square. It is an angle to the horizon, not a sixth aspect type. A trine to the Midheaven inside 6° is still a trine. The element counts elsewhere on the page skip these two angles; the aspect list does not. Those are different tallies.

When the birth time is unknown, the Ascendant and the Midheaven are absent, so they cannot form pairs. Aspects are only among the ten bodies, using local noon in the birth place's time zone as the stand-in clock. The Moon in that set is a noon estimate. A Moon aspect that depends on a few degrees can change if the real minute moves the Moon across an orb boundary, and the sign itself can be the neighbor when noon sits near a cusp. That estimate is described in The Moon without a birth time. What else a date-only chart keeps, and what it hides, is Birth chart without birth time.

Houses are not aspects

Houses exist only when a birth time was entered. The calculator then draws twelve Placidus cusps, writes a house number on each of the ten planets, and can show the Ascendant and the Midheaven. There is no house-system switch. Placidus stays the system. Koch, Whole Sign, and Equal are not offered.

If I don't know my birth time is checked, the house list is empty. Planet rows do not grow a guessed house. The wheel does not draw a house ring. Aspects can still be listed, because those angles are between longitudes and most of them do not need a horizon. An empty house column is not a missing aspect. An aspect row is not a house placement.

A house and an aspect answer different questions. The house says which Placidus sector holds the longitude, and only after a clock time aimed the wheel. The aspect says which other longitude on the same chart sits near 0°, 60°, 90°, 120°, or 180° under the orbs above. You can have a full aspect list and no houses. You can have houses and only a short aspect list, when few pairs fall inside the orbs. Neither result fills in the other.

How to read one row

A row such as Moon square Mars at 2.4° means the shortest separation was about 2.4° away from 90°, so near 92.4° or 87.6°, and inside the 8° square. It does not mean a medical outcome, a legal result, or a financial plan. It does not schedule a week. It is an angle on the snapshot, in the same plain sense as a planet's sign.

Read the rows that are actually in the table. Skip an angle remembered from another book when this page does not list it. To see the pairs for a date and place, use the natal chart calculator with the best time on record. With no time, keep the aspects among the planets, drop the houses, and treat a tight Moon aspect as the part that may move once a minute exists.

The five names, the two orbs, and the house switch are the whole rule. Other angles a different wheel might draw are outside this build on purpose.