Search Date / Location
The search date should be set to find the next or previous return in the case of return charts. If it is the 3rd, 7th or 40th day of the Moon type chart, then the search date is ignored. This feature works in the same way as the new chart setup window, except that you may want to relocate the chart if you happen to reside in a different location at the time of the return. Some astrologers strictly use the natal location whereas others use either the location that you were are the time of the return chart, or where you live in general at the time of the return.
Rob Hand says that the natal location should be used and that relocated charts are jibberish, but I would have to disagree. In 1982, when I was still living with an incorrect natal chart (off by 1 hour), I was living in Denver, Co and experienced a solar return in that location. Every 33 years the natal degree returns to the ascendant in your birth place; but that year because of my relocation, my natal angles returned to the degree with Mars and Jupiter conjunct the ascendant to the degree. It was the most fateful year of my life and I wasn't sure why until in 1988 I discovered an error in my birth time (used EST when it was EDT). With the new data, the chart was very startling and looked very much like my natal chart; the year was full of controversy. Had I used the natal location, the return would not have been as clear and would have placed Mars/Jupiter in the 12th sign. At the same time I would agree that moving for a day just to get better angles is a waste of time. There seems to be a key that causes fate to become very strong a few times in life, and sometimes it dictates to another chart what its' configuration should be. I know that I was meant to be in that location at that time and the solar return relocation stated it definitively.
