Open the birth form
Click "New chart" on the dashboard, or the new-chart action in the active-chart bar. The birth form opens with fields for name, date, time and place. Name is just a label to find the chart later; the three that drive the astronomy are date, time and place.
Why these three matter: the planetary longitudes barely move minute to minute, but the ascendant (lagna) advances roughly one degree every four minutes and crosses a whole sign about every two hours. A wrong time, or wrong place, shifts the lagna and rotates the entire house framework — so accuracy here is the foundation of everything that follows.
Enter the date and time of birth
Type the date of birth exactly as recorded — double-check the day and month order so a 04/05 is not read as 5 April when it should be 4 May. Then enter the local clock time at the place of birth, the time that was shown on the wall clock there, including any wartime or daylight-saving offset that was in force.
You do not need to calculate the time zone or daylight-saving yourself. Once you select the birthplace in the next step, the app applies the correct historical time-zone and DST rules for that exact date automatically — this is where many manual calculations go wrong, and where the place search saves you.
- ◆Enter the local wall-clock time at the birthplace, not your current time zone.
- ◆For a 1:30 PM birth, set 13:30 (or 1:30 PM, depending on your time format) — confirm AM/PM carefully.
- ◆Do not pre-adjust for time zone or daylight saving; place search handles that.
Use place search to fix the location
Start typing the city or town of birth in the place field and pick the matching entry from the suggestions. Selecting a place pins three values at once: latitude, longitude, and the time zone that applied there on the birth date. Those coordinates set the ascendant precisely, and the time zone converts your local time to the universal time the ephemeris needs.
For best results, choose the most specific place you can — the actual town, not just the nearest large city — because even a modest distance changes the latitude and nudges the lagna degree. If a small village is not listed, pick the nearest town with the same latitude band; the difference will be tiny.
Choose your calculation settings
Beneath the birth fields are the calculation settings. The defaults follow mainstream North-Indian Vedic practice, so most users can leave them alone, but it is worth knowing what each one does because they change the chart.
The ayanamsa is the correction that converts tropical positions to the sidereal zodiac that Jyotish uses; Lahiri (Chitrapakṣa) is the default and the most widely used. The house system controls how the houses are drawn — whole-sign (equal, sign-based) houses are the classical Vedic default, while Bhāva-chalita and the KP cuspal system are available when you want them. You can also pick true or mean lunar nodes (Rāhu/Ketu).
- ◆Ayanamsa: Lahiri (Chitrapakṣa) by default — the standard sidereal correction for Vedic charts.
- ◆House system: whole-sign houses by default; Bhāva-chalita and KP cuspal available for those methods.
- ◆Nodes: choose true or mean Rāhu/Ketu to match your tradition.
- ◆Set these as defaults in Settings so every new chart inherits them.
Cast, verify and save
Click to cast the chart. It draws instantly. Before reading anything, glance at the active-chart bar and confirm the ascendant sign and Moon sign look right for the birth details you entered — this catches a mistyped time or a wrong place in seconds.
A quick sanity check: confirm the Moon nakṣatra matches the janma-nakṣatra on record if you have one, and that the lagna is the expected sign. The chart is saved automatically and appears on your dashboard, so you can return to it any time and explore it through every chart, dasha and report.
When the birth time is unknown or uncertain
If the exact time is unknown, you have options rather than a dead end. Many astrologers cast a "noon chart" (using 12:00) to read the Moon sign, planetary signs and dashas — all of which are reliable from the date alone — while treating the ascendant and house cusps as provisional.
When you have an approximate time, cast a chart and use it as a starting point for rectification: duplicate the chart from the active-chart bar, nudge the time, and compare how the lagna, divisional charts and dasha timing line up against known life events. Soul Yatri Jyotish makes this iterative because re-casting is instant and every dependent view updates with it.
Frequently asked questions
- Should I enter the birth time in my time zone or the birthplace time zone?
- Enter the local wall-clock time at the place of birth. When you select the birthplace in place search, the app applies the correct historical time zone and daylight-saving rules for that date automatically, so you should never pre-convert the time yourself.
- My exact birthplace is a small village that is not in the list — what do I do?
- Pick the nearest town that shares roughly the same latitude. The longitude affects local time only slightly, and a small latitude difference moves the ascendant by a negligible amount. For a precise reading, you can also enter coordinates directly if you have them.
- Which ayanamsa and house system should I use?
- For mainstream Vedic work, keep the defaults: the Lahiri (Chitrapakṣa) ayanamsa and whole-sign houses. Switch only if your tradition or technique calls for it — for example, KP practitioners use the KP ayanamsa and cuspal system.
- Can I cast a chart without a known birth time?
- Yes. Cast a noon chart to read the Moon sign, planetary signs and dashas, which depend only on the date. Treat the ascendant and houses as provisional until you can rectify the time using known life events.
- How do I know I entered everything correctly?
- After casting, check the active-chart bar: confirm the ascendant sign, Moon sign and, if you know it, the janma-nakṣatra match your records. A mismatch usually points to a wrong AM/PM, a swapped day and month, or the wrong place.
