Solar return calculator: your chart from one birthday to the next
A solar return chart is a map of the sky at the minute the Sun comes back to its birth degree, read for the year until your next birthday.
How the solar return is timed and cast
Your natal Sun marks one exact degree, and once a year the Sun passes over it again. The calculator finds that minute with the same ephemeris as this site’s birth chart and casts a chart for it, with Placidus houses. The return falls within a day of your birthday: the tropical year runs about 5 hours 49 minutes past 365 days, so the moment arrives almost six hours later on the clock each year and jumps back after every 29 February.
Example: born 29 September 1990 at 09:30 in Moscow, natal Sun 5°49′ Libra. The Sun returns to that degree on 29 September 2026 at 01:40 Moscow time. Cast for Moscow: Ascendant 17°20′ Leo, Midheaven 27°28′ Aries, Sun in the 3rd house, Moon at 4°41′ Taurus in the 10th. Jupiter, at 19°13′ Leo, is 1°53′ from the Ascendant. Five planets are angular: Jupiter (1st), Mercury and Venus (4th), the Moon and Uranus (10th). The tightest aspect is the Sun trine Uranus, orb 0°16′.
Without a birth time, the natal Sun is known only to within half a degree or so either way, as the Sun moves roughly a degree a day, so the return can only be placed in a window of about 24 hours. The page shows that window and the planets’ signs, with two possible signs for the Moon if its 13° a day crosses a sign boundary. The Ascendant, Midheaven and houses are left out rather than guessed.
Houses are measured from the horizon and meridian of a place, so the city you choose moves the Ascendant, the Midheaven and every house cusp. The moment itself is the same worldwide, only the local clock reading differs, and each planet keeps its sign and degree.
A solar return is a new chart, cast from scratch every year; progressions take your birth chart and move it forward slowly, the Sun by about a degree a year. If you want to know how you yourself are changing, that is a question for progressions, not a solar return.
Common questions about solar returns
What is a solar return chart?
It is a chart for the moment the Sun reaches the exact degree it held at your birth, which happens around your birthday every year. Astrologers use it as the chart of your personal year. Only the Sun’s degree repeats while every other planet has moved on, so no two years give the same chart.
When is my solar return this year?
On your birthday or close to it, never more than a day away, and the form above pins it down to the minute. The time is shown on the local clock of the place where you will spend the birthday. It changes from one year to the next, so last year’s time is no guide.
How do you read a solar return chart?
Start with the house the Sun falls in, the main theme of the year, then read the Ascendant for how you meet it and the Moon’s sign and house for its emotional tone. Planets in the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th houses are the loudest, and the three tightest aspects show which themes are tied together. Treat the chart as a set of priorities for the year, not a list of events.
Does the solar return location change the chart?
Yes, partly: another city gives a different Ascendant, Midheaven and set of houses, while the moment and the planets’ signs stay the same. Tradition casts the chart for the place where you spend your birthday, so enter that city if it is not where you were born. Leave the field empty and the calculator uses your birth city.
Do I need my birth time for a solar return?
For the full chart, yes: without it you get the planets’ signs and a window of about a day, but no Ascendant, Midheaven or houses. The birth hour fixes your natal Sun’s degree, and the return moment moves with it almost minute for minute. A birth time ten minutes off shifts the return by about ten minutes and the Ascendant by a few degrees, so use the most exact time you have.
Is this solar return calculator free?
Yes: the whole chart and every reading on this page are free, with no account and no sign-up. Your birth data is used only for the calculation and is not stored on our side. You can recalculate for another year or another city as often as you like.