Calculation of Sidereal Time and Ascendant

One Solar day is the time between two successive passages of the sun across the meridian as observed at a particular place. In astrology, we are interested in motion of stars. We want to know the time period of earth when any star is observed to return to the same position. Such a clock is called a sidereal clock and its time, being regulated by stars is called sidereal time. There are 3 !."#"" days in the year. $uring this period, the earth makes one revolution around the Sun. If we look from remote stars, we see that the earth has made 3 ."#"" circles about its a%is in 3 !."#"" days. &ach sidereal day is thus ' $uration of one sidereal day ( $uration of sidereal year)*o. of sidereal days ( 3 !."#"")3 ."#"" ( "3 hr. ! m #.+, s -shorter by 3 min !!.,. seconds than the mean solar day of "# hours./ 01T and 0reenwich sidereal time coincide at one instant every year at the autumnal e2uino% -around September ""/. Thereafter, the difference increases until half a year later it is ." hours -around 1arch "3/. 3fter one year, the times again coincide. To compute sidereal time manually, please refer to 4Tables of 3scendants4 by *.5. 6ahiri. The 10th House or Mid-Heaven : The point of intersection of the ecliptic of the given time with the meridian of the place is the tenth house for that moment. If 3 is the sidereal time e%pressed in degrees and 7 is the tenth house, then tenth house can be computed as ' tan B = tan A Sec w where w is the inclination of earth8s e2uatorial plane to the ecliptic.

Ascendant : The ascendant is the point of intersection of the ecliptic with the eastern hori9on of the place. if 3 is the sidereal time in degrees : ,++ then

tan 7 ( tan 3 cos w ....-./ ;rom 3 < 7, we can evaluate $ the declination < 2 (,+ = angle between meridian < ecliptic, as' sin $ ( sin 3 sin w ....-"/ sin 2 ( sin w cos b ....-3/ ;rom $ < 2, we compute the ascendant as ' tan & ( sin $ tan-> : 2/ ..-#/ where > is the latitude of the place. 3scendant ( 7 : & ....-!/ The value of the ascendant as calculated above is the sayan value. Subtracting ayanamsa we get nirayana ascendant. The above formulae gives accurate values of ascendant. In absence of scientifc calculators, the ascendant < the tenth house can be computed using tables of ascendant by *.5. 6ahiri. ?owever, calculation of ascendant using tables gives rise to errors because of tables not available for the given place or for the given sidereal time. This error some times goes upto many minutes of arc. Approximate computation of Ascendant : The ascendant can also be computed appro%imately orally from date of time of birth. It does not vary much because of latitude or longitude, if local time is taken. So take the standard time < roughly estimate the local time. Take the date of birth and estimate the Sun degree, using the fact that it is ++ on .#th 3pril and it advances by .+ everyday or . sign every month. Month 3pril 1ay @une @uly 3ugust September Suns entry 3ries Taurus 0emini 5ancer 6eo Airgo Month October *ovember $ecember @anuary ;ebruary 1arch Suns entry 6ibra Scorpio Sagittarius 5apricorn 32uarius Bisces

If the date of birth is $ecember .3th, then as per table given Sun enters into Sagittarius on .!th $ec. ?ence it is appro%imately on "C+ scorpio on .3th $ecember in any year. Since at Sun rise, Sun is at the eastern hori9on, so the Sun degree matches with the ascendant degree. ?ence at Sun rise on .3th $ecember any year, the ascendant is appro%imately "C+ Scorpio. 3fter that it increases by the sign every " hours or .+ every # minutes. 1ore accurately, it crosses si% signs from Sun rise to Sun set and ne%t si% signs from Sun set to Sun rise. So if time of birth is . B1 and since sunrise is appro%imately at D..! 31 in $elhi at that time and day duration is only about .+

hours the ascendant after !hrs. #! minutes of sunrise shall be 3 signs and few degrees away than the Sun, that is, it will be >ust crossing 32uarius and reaching Bisces. 3ctual calculations show that ascendant on .3..".! at . B1 at $elhi is ,+ D8 Bisces. Traditionally, we calculate ascendant from Ishta 0hati using Balabha, 6ankodaya, Edaymaan and Sun degrees for different signs. ?owever because of better trignometric methods described above we are not putting it down here. To make the task easy, Banchangs give ending time of ascending signs on daily basis for a given place. These tables can be directly used to get fairly correct ascendant sign. 3n interpolation of time between the two signs also gives us ascendant accurate to a degree normally sufficient for most of the astrological predictions. Ascendant calculation for foreign irths : To utmost surprise, at least !+F astrologers commit mistake in calculating the ascendant for foreign births. This is mainly because they convert the time of birth to Indian Standard time. This way if a birth has taken place in the morning in *ew Gork, it becomes evening in India. Then when we calculate the horoscope, we find sun placed in the Dth house, whereas it should be in the ascendant by virtue of the definition of ascendant itself. The trigonometric method above holds good for any date, time and place of birth. Gou do not have to change anything anywhere. ?owever, if you want to compute ascendant orally, then also go for the method prescribed above. It will give appro%imately correct value of ascendant for any longitude or latitude -south latitude also/. To make the task further easy, take any Banchang which gives ending moment of signs for given local time of birth. 5ompute the local time by making oral correction for longitude to time 9one and look into the table to get ascendant accurate to few degrees. This works because of the basic fact that ascendant varies only by a few degrees due to latitude. ;urther note that to calculate planet positions using ephemeris or Banchangs, it is necessary to convert time from other time 9one to IST since the Banchangs are giving values at IST only. This is the common mistake done by most of the astrologers that they convert time to IST for calculation of ascendant and take the time as it is for calculation of planet degrees. So, remember ' !o not convert time to "ST for ascendant calculation of foreign irths ut convert the time to "ST for planet degree calculations#