Astrology: astro-logos (study of stars)

Almost everyone of us believes or has interest in astrology, even though we might not believe it we all know our sun signs and read the daily sun sign forecast in the newspaper with curiosity/interest (it's a different story that more often than not the forecast is incorrect!). So, do the planetes located millions & zillions miles away(Pluto for instance is a member of Kuiper Belt) from earth really affect us? It was just this question which drew me to astrology, here are some of my thoughts about the whole thing:
a) Natal Astrology: I think the natal chart (the positions of planet during the time of the birth) or the birth chart helps a lot in getting to know about the psyche of a person, why do people behave differently in a business relationship v.s. personal relationship, what draws them to other person etc. etc. The most important aspect of a birth chart is off-course the sun sign(the sign in the zodiac where the sun was during the birth) as it signifies the person, his vitality, egoes, pride, self-worth or in general "I".
Second most is the ascendant(exact birth time + location is needed to calculate ASC): It's the degree which was rising on the eastern horizon during the birth & it reflects how we project ourselves to others, how we want others to see us as...if the sun signifies "I", ascendant signifies "I AM LIKE".
Third most important being the moon sign (near exact time needed), just like sun radiates all the light & energy during the day, the moon acts like a receptor & radiates the energy back during the night. It reflects our emotions, how we want to be nurtured & nurture others, our caring self etc..
Not that the other planets are not important, but these three together can give a fair idea about the person's psyche.
b) Predictive Astrology: Predicting life events in everyday life based on the current planetary positions & their aspects(geometrical relationship like square, opposition etc.) to natal planets. I have found this to be not the best way of predicting events, in the hindsight yes you can look at the planetary positions for that event and draw some relationship but I feel it's near impossible to predict someone's future by looking at the planets. We all have free will to do what we want to do, planets or no planets.
There are few more areas where astrology is used but they don't interest me much though one area that I would like to know a bit more about is horary. I think astrology is a good tool to learn about someone's psyche and which areas in life a person might face challenges & thus helping him to overcome those challenges by free will.