Summing up

Summary of the behaviour of the ascendant at 70° northern latitude:

• Direct motion from 0°43' Leo through Virgo, and Libra to 29°17' Scorpio.

• Jump to 29°17' Taurus.

• Retrograde motion from 29°17' Taurus through  Aries, and Pisces to 0°43' Aquarius.

• Jump to  0°43' Leo.

Note that some areas of the zodiac never can cross the horizon. The more northen the geographical latitude the larger this area will grow. At this geographical latitude the ascendant never move in the areas 29°17' Scorpio - 0°43' Aquarius and 29°17' Taurus - 0°43' Leo. Astrological software failing to reflect this behaviour of the ascendant in my opinion is of no use for astrologers wishing to calculate charts for polar latitudes.

Summary of the behaviour of MC at 70° northern latitude:

• Direct motion from 0°43' Aquarius though Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, and Libra to 29°17' Scorpio.

• Jump to 29°17' Taurus.

• Direct motion from 29°17' Taurus to 0°43' Leo.

• Jump to 0°43' Aquarius.

The points in the area 29°17' Taurus - 0°43' Leo cross the meridian above the horizon twice each day. It's the position of MC twice each day, when MC is defined as the intersection of the meridian circle with the ecliptic above the horizon. 

On the other hand, defining MC as the point of ecliptic reaching its culmination not such jump occur but the MC just goes round and round the zodiac.

A plea to the developers of astrological software

For users  wishing to calculate chart for polar regions the software need to have the following functionality:

• When the ascendant reverse its direction of movement it must jump to the opposite point in the zodiac. There are no alternatives to this.
  

• The user must have the option to select how he wish the MC to behave:

  1. MC jumps to the opposite point of the zodiac when the ascendant reverse its direction of movement.
     Definition of MC:  The intersection of the meridian circle with the ecliptic above the horizon. 
     

  2. MC does not jump to the opposite point of the zodiac when the ascendant reverse its direction of movement.
     Definition of MC: The point of zodiac culminating.

As I see it, the software developer doesn't need to take side in the issues of controversy between astrologers. The developers just has to put the different options in the program, and then the user can choose what he or she prefer.

The popular freeware program Astrolog meets this standard regarding polar regions. You'll have to use the modified version of Astrolog found at Valja's astrology page (this page also has some articles discussing the problem of polar charts). To select which definition of MC the program shall use you select the menu Edit, and then Enter command line, and type YH for definition 1 above and -YH for definition 2 above.

Finally

I hope my illustrations will bring  some more clarity to the issue of charts for polar regions.

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