Above is the input form for the Digiscope, our birth chart software. The current program has been refined from the original version to include more useful information and exclude less useful information. This program provides about 5 or 6 pages of information, with some redundancy throughout to reduce page-flipping. If your browser properly supports CSS in printing, then the printed information should be cleanly formatted to each page.
The time is expected to be Universal Time (UTC, same as old GMT or Zulu). The longitude and latitude are expected to be decimals (not minutes and seconds), so there is a calculator to the right. The elevation is expected to be metres, not feet nor miles. Given any date, time, and place, the Digiscope will produce a corresponding natal chart. This can be used to study the astrological influences upon any individual, group of individuals, or event.
There are two available chart types, topocentric and geocentric. Many modern astrology programs use geocentric positions, assuming them to be more "pure" in reflecting the relationships between the planets in their positions. The topocentric option is default because it agrees with "eyeball" measurements. Ancient astrologers looked up (from their own topocentric position) to measure the movements of the planets. Calculating how those planets would look from the centre of the Earth is not only unnecessary, it is quite a hassle.
There are also 9 available house systems. Placidus is the default because it has been the traditional system for quite some time and there doesn't seem to be much evidence of a widespread, "standard" system before Placidus. With the exceptions of the Equal House and Whole Sign options, all the other house systems listed above are either based on Placidus or yield very similar results.
Lastly, there are two aspect lists available. The traditional aspect list contains 10 aspects (derived from 360, divided by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 12). All aspects on the traditional list are derived from pure integer operations and are almost uncontested amongst astrologers. The full aspect list contains 34 aspects and is derived from all possible divisions of 360 which yield integer quotients. The reasoning for this list can be found in the article on natural aspects here. The default orb of each aspect will be multiplied by the number in the "Orb Multiplier" box. If this box contains 0.8, then all orbs will be 80% of their default value. Possible multipliers are restricted to a range between 0.1 and 2.0 for practicality. When using the full aspect list, it is recommended that the orb multiplier be left at 1.0, because the appropriate orb for each aspect has been mathematically balanced.
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