Help and instructions

Getting started

AskAstraGeo.com shows where in the world life supports you and where it is harder, calculated from your birth chart. You need a birth date and place and, ideally, a birth time.

1. Look at the demo. Without signing up you can open the demo family: every feature works, nothing can be changed.
2. Create an account. “Sign up” → e-mail and password → confirm the e-mail from the letter.
3. Add yourself. On the People page: “Add a person” → name, “who is it” = me, date, time and how sure you are of it, place of birth (start typing the city). The map is calculated in the background in about half a minute.
4. Open the map. “Open the map” on your card: planet lines, the index of every city, your lists of places.

People, family and photos

• Who is it. Mark each person: me, partner, child, parent or friend. The family plan counts people by this field.
• Photo. Click the camera on a person's card (or “Edit” → Photo) and choose a picture. Your browser crops it to a square and reduces it to 320×320 before upload; metadata, including the location of the shot, is removed. Only you see the photo; “Remove photo” deletes it.
• Silhouettes. Without a photo the card shows a silhouette chosen by role, gender and age (baby, child, adult, older person). Set the gender in “Edit” if you want a matching silhouette.
• Birth time. Say where the time comes from: certificate, memory, approximate, a time window, unknown. Angle lines (ASC, DSC, MC, IC) move about 1° per 4 minutes, so with an uncertain time the card shows how stable a city's index is.
• Shared maps. Tick 2–6 people and press “Build for selected”. People who did not agree to shared maps are not included.

Reading the map

• Lines. Every planet has four angle lines: ASC (rising: how you come across, energy), DSC (setting: partners and other people), MC (zenith: career, visibility), IC (nadir: home, roots, inner life). Dotted lines are aspect lines: softer and narrower.
• Colours. Green supports, red strains, blue is mixed. A thicker line has a stronger effect.
• Parans. Latitude bands where two planets are on angles at the same moment; they act along the whole band.
• Index. Every city gets −100…+100 for 12 life themes and 7 trip modes (vacation, trip, relocation, study, business, for a couple, retreat). From +40 it is a place of power, below −40 a hard place.
• City card. Click any city or point: which lines work there and with what orb, stability to birth time, the “live here” verdict, houses of the place, when to go.
• Legend and layers. Theme and mode, eclipse paths, the planet of the year, orbs (narrow / standard / wide), the birth-time band.
• Key and all lines. The map first shows the 14 strongest lines for the chosen theme and the lines of the opened city. The “Lines: key / all” switch is in the legend.
• Search and comparison. The “Find a city” field on the map takes a name or coordinates (the “/” key) and keeps recent places. “Compare” in a city card puts up to four places side by side across all themes and modes.

Lists of places

Keep lists such as “where I lived”, “where I want to go” or favourites. Add a city from the search box or by clicking on the map, write a note and tags, change the order, move a city to another list and compare it with where you live now.

Places diary. In a city’s breakdown, “How it was for me here” records whether living or travelling there felt good, so-so or hard, with the years and a short note. The diary sits under the list and compares each place with the map: “good” matches an index above +12, “hard” one below −12, “so-so” the range in between. The diary is private: only the map’s owner sees it.

Finding places by criteria

The Find tab finds cities that match all your conditions at once:

• a theme or mode and the minimum index;
• planets whose lines must help, and planets that must not be on an angle;
• “no strain” — no line with a strong negative effect;
• region (continents, countries), city size and the language of the country;
• how far: maximum flight time from home, the place of birth or the centre of the map (an estimate: 750 km/h plus 45 minutes, not a timetable);
• by the sea — the coast within about 30 km;
• climate — warm all year, Mediterranean, mild, continental, cold or dry (Köppen climate classes).

Results appear as dots on the map; a click opens the city card. The Resorts layer shows seaside, spa, mountain and lake resorts coloured by your index.

When to go and the birthday map

• When to go. For any city: favourable and difficult windows month by month (planets crossing the angles of the place, stations, fast planets, void-of-course Moon, eclipses) for 3, 6 or 12 months. “Calendar (.ics)” saves the windows to your calendar.
• Birthday. Where to spend your birthday: the solar return for different cities and how the year will feel.
• Your day in this city. In the city analysis, pick a day and see a 1–10 score, what to focus on, what to avoid and why: the sky’s aspects to your chart at 9:00, 13:00, 17:00 and 21:00 local time, with this city’s Ascendant and MC.
• Trip here. In the city analysis, pick the dates of a trip: you see a score for each day, a better window of the same length nearby if there is one, good days to set off (the Moon void of course and planet stations are taken into account) and a checklist; add it to your calendar or save the dates in your list.

When to move. Under “Live here” in a city’s breakdown: each of the next 12 months gets a score from the average score of the days in that city, adjusted for slow planets on the city’s angles, Mercury retrograde and eclipses on the angles. You see the three best months with their reasons, two months to avoid and good days in the best month. The full year is in the Family plan; without it you see the best month.

Path map report: PDF and PowerPoint

• The Report button opens the “Path map”: the essence, your map, the themes, what to do, a calendar with eclipses, principles, conclusions and an appendix.
• PDF — for reading and printing. PowerPoint (.pptx) — slides for a talk or a consultation; you can edit them.
• The report exists in all six languages of the interface.
• Share gives a link to a map or a city without the birth data.

Maps for couples and families

A shared map shows where it is good for everyone at once and where someone will struggle. Choose 2–6 people on the People page; each person's consent to shared maps is respected.

Compatibility of pairs. On the shared map, open “Compatibility of pairs”: every pair gets four 1–10 scales (feelings, communication, values, conflicts) and an overall score, with what holds you together and what to work on. The figures are the same whichever person comes first.

Plan, account and referral programme

• Without a plan you can keep yourself and one more person. The family plan covers you, a partner, two children and two parents, plus extra people for a small fee — see Pricing.
• Account: name, language, password, data export, account deletion.
• Referral programme: share your link and receive a commission on payments of the people you invited; details are in the account.

Languages

The interface works in English, Russian, German, French, Spanish and Chinese. The language button is at the top right; on the first visit the language of your browser is used. German, French, Spanish and Chinese texts are careful translations with an astrological glossary; proofreading by native speakers is planned and has not taken place yet.

Your data

• Birth data is used only to calculate your maps and is never sold or published.
• Shared links do not contain birth data.
• Photos are visible only to you; metadata is removed before saving.
• Deleting the account deletes your people, maps, photos and links. Details: Privacy policy.

Astra assistant and writing to us

• Astra. The “Astra” button at the top opens the assistant on any page. Ask in your own words: it finds the answer in this help and shows where the screen is.
• Write to us. On the “Messages” tab you can write to the team. The reply appears in the same window, and a dot on the button tells you about it. If the assistant finds no answer, the “Write to us” button opens this tab with your question already filled in. Messages are read and answered by the AskAstraGeo team; we also send you an email that a reply is waiting, without its text.
• What it does not do. It does not calculate or change anything: indexes, lines and dates come only from your map. It does not answer questions about health, lifespan, money decisions or other people’s private lives.
• Your questions. Questions are kept for 90 days to improve the help; messages stay in your account. Both are deleted with the account.

Questions

I don't know my birth time.

Choose “a time window” or “unknown”: the angle lines become bands and the card shows how stable the index of each city is.

How exact is it?

Positions come from Swiss Ephemeris; the lines themselves are precise to about a kilometre. The interpretation is a model with a version number; a review by a practising astrologer is planned and has not taken place yet.

Is it a prediction?

No. It is a map of tendencies to help you choose; decisions are yours. It is not medical, legal or financial advice.

Why did the index of a city change?

When the model is improved (its version is on the Method page), maps are recalculated. See “What's new”.

Which version am I using?

The badge next to the logo, for example v0.17.0. Click it to come here.

What's new