Zodiac and ephemeris
AstroZora V1 uses the tropical zodiac. The production calculation architecture uses Skyfield with a local JPL planetary ephemeris and an independently implemented house engine. Calculation metadata is recorded so results can be reproduced and validated. Public production should not be enabled until the JPL runtime and independent golden-chart validation gates pass.
Birthplace and historical civil time
A selected birthplace resolves server-side to coordinates and an IANA timezone identifier. Historical timezone rules and daylight-saving transitions are evaluated from timezone data. Ambiguous fall-back times require a choice between the two real occurrences; nonexistent spring-forward times must be corrected rather than silently shifted.
Unknown birth time
When an exact birth time is unknown, AstroZora does not substitute noon and present the result as precise. Time-sensitive angles, houses and planet-in-house claims are withheld. Planetary sign placements can be evaluated across the local civil day, and the result should state uncertainty if a body such as the Moon changes signs during that interval.
House systems
Placidus is the default V1 house system and Whole Sign is the secondary option. If Placidus is unavailable at an extreme latitude and the calculation engine falls back to another system, the result must identify the system actually calculated instead of labeling the output as Placidus.
Major aspects and orbs
V1 prioritizes conjunctions at 0 degrees with an 8-degree orb, sextiles at 60 degrees with a 5-degree orb, squares at 90 degrees with a 7-degree orb, trines at 120 degrees with a 7-degree orb and oppositions at 180 degrees with an 8-degree orb. Key aspects are ranked by factors including tightness and relevance to the Sun, Moon, personal planets and chart angles.
Interpretation layer
Calculated chart data is passed into curated interpretation rules and a composition layer. AstroZora does not ask a language model to guess planetary positions. Any future AI language layer must remain downstream of validated calculation JSON and may improve phrasing without changing the underlying astronomy.