Carl Sagan birth chart.
Astronomer — Cosmos, the Voyager Golden Record.
The data behind this chart. Born November 9, 1934 at 05:05, Brooklyn, New York, USA. Source: Astrodatabank, Rodden rating AA (birth record). This atlas publishes only charts whose birth data carries an Astrodatabank Rodden rating of AA or A — birth records and personal reports, never fan-wiki estimates. Everything below is computed from those inputs by the observatory engine; nothing is copied from another reading.
The Big Three
- Sun in Scorpio at 16°19′ — house 2
- Moon in Sagittarius at 14°50′ — house 3
- Libra Rising at 27°50′ — chart ruler Venus
This is a Scorpio Sun, Sagittarius Moon, Libra Rising chart — a night-sect chart, so the Moon leads and Venus is the benefic of sect.
Timeline
Carl Sagan’s natal chart on the Dial, from birth to death: the sky of any day of the life as a transit ring around the natal wheel, the transits in orb as bars with their entering, exact and leaving dates, the annual profection as the time-lord band, and the day’s reading in plain words. Drag the track, tap a pinned event or a bar, or use the arrow keys.
Reading the year's sky events…
Method
The first clause is the sky event nearest the shown instant in its year: a planet entering a sign, a station (a planet turning retrograde or direct), or a new or full Moon. Eclipses are not on this strip yet.
Motion: daily samples from the engine, interpolated within 0.0005° of it. Exact contacts across the site are measured with one orb table, by transiting body:
| Body | Orb |
|---|---|
| Sun | 2.0° |
| Moon | 2.0° |
| Mercury | 1.5° |
| Venus | 1.5° |
| Mars | 1.5° |
| Jupiter | 1.2° |
| Saturn | 1.0° |
| Uranus | 0.8° |
| Neptune | 0.8° |
| Pluto | 0.8° |
| North Node | 1.0° |
1934–1996 · drag the track, tap an event, or use the arrow keys (N and P for the next and previous event)
Tap a planet or a sign on the wheel.
Rodden AA · Astrodatabank, Rodden rating AA (birth record) · Born November 9, 1934 at 05:05, Brooklyn, New York, USA. Events below are dated public record, each with the page it was checked against; their pins sit at noon UTC because no event here carries a verified hour.
- Cancer · 10th house
- Leo · 11th house
Method
- Zodiac: tropical. North Node: the true (osculating) node; the South Node is opposite it.
- Annual profection: one sign a year from the Ascendant, each year running solar return to solar return; the sign's ruler is the year's time lord.
- Transit orbs: Sun 2.0°, Moon 2.0°, Mercury 1.5°, Venus 1.5°, Mars 1.5°, Jupiter 1.2°, Saturn 1.0°, Uranus 0.8°, Neptune 0.8°, Pluto 0.8°, North Node 1.0°.
Pluto in Libra runs easily alongside your Saturn, at home in Aquarius, in the 5th house of children, pleasure, and what you make. A long undercurrent that works at the roots. The ground here is duty and long effort. Deep change and commitments and boundaries keep the same rhythm for now. It is the closing trine of this cycle. Louder: Saturn rules the Capricorn chapter of your longer cycle. The contact is building: exact in 15 days, the third of five passes. What expectation could you clarify before agreeing to it?Pluto trine natal Saturn · within 0.8° · whole-sign houses, traditional rulers · phase read from the sky at the instant · a symbolic reading of the geometry, not a forecast
Mercury in Libra meets your natal Ascendant (Libra). Chatter on the wire, fast and changeable. The ground here is your body and the first impression you make. For a while curiosity and how you present yourself and pace your day run as one current. As ruler of your 9th and 12th, it also brings travel and study and retreat in. The contact is at full strength around 28 September. What do you present as easy that actually costs you effort?Mercury conjunction natal Ascendant · within 1.5° · whole-sign houses, traditional rulers · phase read from the sky at the instant · a symbolic reading of the geometry, not a forecast
Venus in Leo faces your Saturn, at home in Aquarius, in the 5th house of children, pleasure, and what you make. A gentle warmth gathers around what you like. The ground here is duty and long effort. Pressure builds from two sides: appreciation on one, commitments and boundaries on the other. As ruler of your 1st and 8th, it also brings self and body and shared resources in. Louder: Saturn rules the Capricorn chapter of your longer cycle. The contact is easing: exact a day ago, in orb until 28 September. Before adding a commitment, what is realistic with the time you have?Venus opposition natal Saturn · within 1.5° · whole-sign houses, traditional rulers · phase read from the sky at the instant · a symbolic reading of the geometry, not a forecast
- Voyager 1 launches carrying the Golden Record he chairedsource
- Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for The Dragons of Edensource
- Cosmos: A Personal Voyage premieres on PBSsource
- Marries Ann Druyansource
- Dies in Seattle, Washingtonsource
Turning points against ordinary days
Any astrology site will tell you what the sky was doing on a famous day, and there is always something: a slow planet or the lunar node is within orb of some point in a chart on a large share of the days of any life. So here is the count for Carl Sagan’s four dated events above, beside the rate it has to beat: how often the same body was in orb on an ordinary day of the same life.
At 3 of 4 of the events, Pluto was in orb of a point in the chart; on an ordinary day of the life it was 36% of the time, about 1.5 of 4 expected. Chance alone does at least that well about 1 time in 7.
| Body | At the events | Ordinary day | Chance alone does as well |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jupiter | 0 of 4 | 48% (1.9 expected) | more often than not |
| Saturn | 1 of 4 | 43% (1.7 expected) | more often than not |
| Uranus | 0 of 4 | 37% (1.5 expected) | more often than not |
| Neptune | 1 of 4 | 34% (1.4 expected) | more often than not |
| Pluto | 3 of 4 | 36% (1.5 expected) | about 1 time in 7 |
| North Node | 1 of 4 | 12% (0.5 expected) | about 1 time in 2 |
Across all seven lives on the observatory (36 dated events), the body furthest above its ordinary-day rate is North Node: in orb at 6 of 36 events against 4.3 expected, which chance alone matches about 1 time in 4. Seven lives and six bodies make 42 comparisons, and chance alone gives about two of them a 1-in-20 look on average; here two do.
A few famous dates cannot show that the sky shapes a life, and the largest study of people born minutes apart found effect sizes near zero (how we date a transit). What this table shows is the method: on this site, a contact comes with the rate it has to beat.
Method
In orb means inside the engine’s orb of one of the chart’s twelve points (the ten planets, the Ascendant and the Midheaven) by conjunction, sextile, square, trine or opposition: the bars of the timeline above, for Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and the North Node. Each event is read at noon UTC of its day, because none carries a verified hour. The day the life ended is not read (one event left out). The ordinary-day rate is the share of every moment from birth to death with at least one contact of the body in orb (Pluto only from 1885, where its series starts). “Chance alone” is the probability that the same number of moments picked at random from the life would land in orb at least as often (binomial; pooled over the lives, each event at its own life’s rate).
The contacts at each event
- Voyager 1 launches carrying the Golden Record he chaired: Neptune square natal Mars; Neptune square natal Neptune.
- Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for The Dragons of Eden: Pluto sextile natal Moon.
- Cosmos: A Personal Voyage premieres on PBS: Pluto trine natal Saturn.
- Marries Ann Druyan: Saturn sextile natal Midheaven; Pluto trine natal Saturn; North Node conjunct natal Midheaven.
All ten placements
- Sun in Scorpio at 16°19′, house 2
- Moon in Sagittarius at 14°50′, house 3
- Mercury in Scorpio at 3°43′, house 2, retrograde
- Venus in Scorpio at 13°56′, house 2 — detriment
- Mars in Virgo at 12°52′, house 12
- Jupiter in Scorpio at 6°22′, house 2
- Saturn in Aquarius at 21°39′, house 5 — domicile
- Uranus in Aries at 28°46′, house 7, retrograde
- Neptune in Virgo at 14°11′, house 12
- Pluto in Cancer at 26°02′, house 10, retrograde
Condition and emphasis
- On the angles: Uranus, Pluto — planets in angular houses carry the loudest voice in a chart.
- Saturn is essentially dignified (net +5: domicile).
- Venus is essentially debilitated (net -5: detriment).
- Near-exact aspects: Venus sextile Neptune (0.2°); Moon square Neptune (0.7°).
- Chart shape: Three or four loose clusters of planets, no dominant group. The native has multiple independent life themes — range over depth.
The Vedic view
Sidereal (Lahiri ayanamsa, 22.94° subtracted from the tropical longitudes): Sun in Tula (Libra), Moon in Vrishchika (Scorpio), Tula (Libra) rising. The Moon occupies Jyeshtha nakshatra, pada 2, ruled by Mercury — the lunar mansion that opens the Vimshottari dasha sequence.
The BaZi view
Four Pillars: year 甲戌, month 乙亥, day 甲申, hour 丁卯. The Day Master is 甲 (Wood), year of the 狗; Wood leads the five-element tally.
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