None of us are experts, I believe that everyday we get to learn something new and that keeps us young and motivated forever. So consider me also like you 🙂
An Indian chart is little complicated if you want to prepare it manually. In Indian horoscopes are a lot different from a western chart. For example Western Astrology uses the Tropical Zodiac , which means that the beginning of the 12 signs are determined by Sun orbit and the onset of the 4 seasons.
Vedic astrology on the other hand use Sidereal Zodiac which is based upon physical position of the Nakshatras or Constellations in the Sky. They begin in Aries 0 degrees and go to 360 degrees passing through 27 Namshatras /Constellations. Therefore in Vedic charts you get more precision as the 360 degrees of zodiac is divided in 12 signs that is from Aries to Pisces, which are further divided in 27 Nakshatras which are further divided in charan or pada. Each Rashi or sign has 9 charan.
Now calculation can be little complicated because in Western Astrology it is believed that the universe is expanding , in Vedic they do not do that for that purpose they use ayanamsa. That is they reduce the expanding factor.
Therefore drawing a chart manually can be little complicated , you need a panchang which is like an ephemeris but contains much more information than just planetary positions. There are available for example 100 Years Panchang which can be used to find the ascendant and also the placement of the planets. But the easy way is to use Horoscope software which can make these calculations very easy.
Blessings,
Navneet Khanna
Astrologer