Check a city
Use Check City in AstroCarto when you have a particular place in mind. It shows nearby visible planetary lines, their approximate distances, and the planet-and-angle themes around that location. Use this evidence to frame a question about the city; checking one city does not rank it against other destinations.
How do I check the right city?
- Generate your map with your birth date, time, and birthplace. Keep an uncertain birth time marked as uncertain.
- Open Check City in the map result controls.
- Enter the destination, check its country and region in the suggestions, and select the intended place. Your destination is separate from your birthplace.
- Select Check City, then confirm the location named in the result before interpreting its lines.
Add a country when a name is ambiguous: Paris in France and Paris in the United States are different checks. If a result is for the wrong place, correct the location first. A different resolved point can slightly change an approximate distance.
AstroCarto includes five free city checks. The same previously recorded city input can be checked again; checking additional cities after the allowance requires access that includes unlimited city checks. If prompted, sign in to check your access, then review the current plans and allowances if needed. This allowance is separate from map-click previews, city comparisons, and AI follow-up. Signing in does not itself promise a fresh allowance.
What do the line, distance, and strength mean?
Read the planet and angle together, then use distance to understand how close that line is. For example, Sun concerns visibility and confidence; MC concerns career and public direction. A close Sun MC line is therefore a career-related theme to investigate, not proof that a job or promotion will follow.
| Field | How to use it |
|---|---|
| Planet and angle | Identify the theme and its area of life. AS concerns how you show up; DS one-to-one relationships; MC public direction; IC home and roots. |
| Distance in km | Approximate distance from the resolved place to a calculated line, not the distance you must move or a travel distance. |
| Strong / close → Weak | A proximity label. Strong means closer evidence, not an automatically positive experience; the planet and angle still matter. |
| Other lines or crossings | Read the available combination before deciding what to ask next. A single nearest line does not replace the rest of the displayed context. |
A Paris example: separate proximity from a final decision
On November 3, 2026, we checked Paris using fictional birth details: January 15, 1990, 12:00 in London, United Kingdom, entered as an exact time. With the ten standard planets visible and Lunar Node off, the single-city result showed Sun MC at approximately 1 km (Strong / close), Venus MC at 341 km (Broad), and Saturn MC at 606 km (Wide context). These are actual results for synthetic inputs, not a customer outcome.
Turn those three lines into a useful question
Suppose you are considering Paris for a career change. This is our teaching scenario, not a job-market conclusion from the tool. Read the result in this order:
- Start with Sun MC at 1 km. Match the line to its displayed meaning: visibility, recognition, and leadership in career or public life. Your first research question could be whether the work you are considering actually involves presenting, leading, or being publicly accountable.
- Add Venus MC at 341 km. Its Broad label places it in the wider context. The displayed themes include creative value and harmony. Ask whether creative or client-facing work matters to your goal; do not assume every role in Paris fits that description.
- Keep Saturn MC at 606 km in proportion. Read its structure, responsibility, and pressure themes as Wide context. Write down a practical question about workload or expectations, rather than giving this distant line the same weight as the close Sun line or automatically rejecting the city.
A useful reading note is: “Paris has a close visible Sun MC theme, broader Venus MC context, and more distant Saturn MC context. I want to investigate a public-facing role and clarify its responsibilities.” The line values come from the result; the work questions are our proposed next steps. Check City has helped define what to investigate, without supplying a job offer, a city ranking, or an answer about every area of life.
Check City reads the visible lines in your map. Hidden or locked lines can change what is shown; a limited view is not a complete inventory of every calculated signal. For the underlying meanings, see how to read your astrocartography map and what line distance means.
Why are there no close lines or no result?
| What you see | What it means and what to do |
|---|---|
| City not found | The location could not be resolved. Add its country or select a more specific suggestion; there is no city result to interpret yet. |
| No visible planet lines | Turn on at least one available planet line, then check again. Hidden lines are a display condition, not evidence that a city has no themes. |
| No close lines in the usual summary range | The visible lines are outside this tool’s usual 644 km summary range. It can still show the closest visible lines as distant context. This range is a product display rule, not a universal boundary for where astrology works. |
| A locked-evidence notice | Some evidence needs additional access. Check the available line controls and your access; an empty visible summary does not establish that no calculated lines are nearby. |
The same chart with only Sun lines visible
In a second single-city check on the same date, we kept the same fictional birth details, displayed only Sun lines, and checked Berlin, Germany. The result said No close lines in the usual summary range and still showed Sun MC at about 745 km and Sun DS at about 1,750 km, both Weak. The message did not mean there were no lines at all, and it said nothing about the planets we had hidden. We restored the other planet lines after this check.
If your result is weak, keep that uncertainty rather than turning a distant line into a strong prediction. Review your visible lines and birth-time accuracy, then compare other feasible places if your question is which city to choose.
To compare two checks fairly, first match their visible-planet settings and birth details. The Sun-only Berlin check cannot establish that Berlin has less overall support than the all-planets Paris check. Restore the intended visible lines before inspecting another city, or use Compare Cities for a same-goal assessment of the selected alternatives.
Can I start with the city where I live?
Yes. Enter your current city as the place to check. Familiarity can help you form specific follow-up questions, but your experience does not calibrate the calculation or change its line distances. If the question is whether another city offers different support, include both in a same-goal city comparison.
How do I save the place or continue researching?
- Keep the location.
Use Save when available and sign in if prompted. My Places stores the location for another visit; saving it does not create a complete report or freeze the current interpretation.
- Ask about this evidence.
Use Ask AI about this city evidence when a result is available. A useful question is “How should I read the closer Sun MC line alongside the broader Saturn MC line?” This is a suggested question; AI access and credits are separate from the city check.
Add your purpose to the question: “I am investigating a client-facing career move. Explain the Sun MC, Venus MC, and Saturn MC context shown for Paris, then separate that reading from the questions I should ask an employer.” Check that the answer refers to the city and lines you actually selected. This prompt is a worked example, not a recorded AI answer.
- Compare alternatives.
Bring two to four feasible places into Compare Cities. Unlike the visible-line check, comparison uses all calculated planetary lines and a selected goal. Different evidence scope can explain different conclusions.
- Choose another starting point.
If you do not yet have a shortlist, the place-selection guide explains when discovery is a better next step.