Questions and answers

The signs and nakshatras of most planets change slowly and can be read from the date alone. The Moon moves about thirteen degrees a day, so its nakshatra may change within the day. The Ascendant changes sign roughly every two hours, and the finer divisional charts within minutes, so without a reliable time the houses, the vargas and the dates of the periods cannot be trusted.

Enter the time as closely as it is known and mark its accuracy. Where the time is not known, a practitioner can work towards it from the events of a life, a process known as birth-time rectification.

The planets are computed from a high-precision ephemeris, and the divisional charts, strengths, periods and yogas are worked to the rules of the classical texts. The results have been checked against established reference software across thousands of charts. Where authorities differ on a method, the page says which convention is followed.

The sidereal zodiac with the Lahiri ayanamsha. Rahu and Ketu are the mean nodes.

Most differences come from four places: a different ayanamsha; the time zone in force at the birth, including summer time and war time, which this site finds from the place and date; the true rather than the mean nodes; and the coordinates of the birth place. Where the birth time was recorded in local time, the time zone can be corrected by hand under the place of birth.

No. Charts are computed in your own browser, and the details you enter are not sent to Lakshatras. The privacy notice sets this out in full.

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