Solar Chart and Solar Return
Two similar-sounding terms need to be kept apart: a simplified chart without a known birth time leaves out the axes and houses. A Solar Return chart, by contrast, is calculated for the yearly moment when the Sun returns to its exact natal position.
The term is used in two senses. The first is the Sun-based chart: if the birth time is unknown, the Ascendant and Midheaven can't be calculated — but planetary positions can, for an explicitly chosen reference time. The Sun can serve as that reference point; an Ascendant must never be presented as reliable when it's really built on a guessed time.
The second sense is the Solar or Solar Return: the chart for the exact moment each year when the transiting Sun returns to its natal position — usually on or around the birthday. It's traditionally read as a chart of the themes for the following twelve months.
Without a known birth time, planetary positions remain calculable, but the axes and houses do not become reliable. That limit should be stated openly rather than covered over by plugging in a default time and presenting the result as more precise than it is. The Solar Return is a separate method of its own, using the exact solar return as its calculation moment.
How we use this term
If you don't know your birth time, Leitstern calculates the available planetary positions and leaves out the Ascendant and MC. This simplified birth chart is never confused with a Solar Return.
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