Nakshatra Calculator
Find your birth star, its pada, ruling planet and deity — the single most-used detail in Vedic astrology.
Enter your birth details to find the nakshatra the Moon occupied when you were born.
What is the nakshatra calculator?
The nakshatras are the 27 lunar mansions that divide the zodiac into equal arcs of 13 degrees 20 minutes each. Your janma nakshatra — birth star — is simply the nakshatra the Moon occupied at the moment you were born. In practice it is the most frequently used single detail in Vedic astrology: it decides the syllable a newborn is traditionally named with, drives the gun milan comparison in marriage matching, and sets the starting point of your Vimshottari dasha sequence.
Each nakshatra is further split into four padas of 3 degrees 20 minutes. The pada places the Moon within a specific navamsa sign, which is why two people born under the same nakshatra on the same day can still have meaningfully different charts. This calculator returns both the nakshatra and the pada.
Every nakshatra carries a ruling planet, a presiding deity and a gana (deva, manushya or rakshasa classification). Those attributes are what the classical texts key their descriptions of temperament off — and what an astrologer uses when checking gana compatibility between two charts.
How this calculator works
- 1
Enter date, time and place of birth
The Moon moves through roughly one nakshatra per day, so the date does most of the work — but the time decides which pada you fall in.
- 2
We locate the Moon sidereally
The Moon's longitude is computed for your moment of birth and adjusted by the Lahiri ayanamsa.
- 3
Map it to one of 27 nakshatras
That longitude is divided into 13°20' arcs to give the nakshatra, then into 3°20' quarters to give the pada.
- 4
Read the attributes
You get the nakshatra name, pada, ruling planet, deity, gana and your moon rashi alongside it.
Frequently asked questions
Both are derived from the Moon. Your rashi is which of the 12 zodiac signs the Moon was in (a 30° arc). Your nakshatra is which of the 27 lunar mansions it was in (a 13°20' arc). The nakshatra is the finer measurement, and each rashi spans about two and a quarter nakshatras.
It determines your traditional naming syllable, your gana and yoni for marriage matching, and the planet whose Vimshottari dasha you were born into — which sets the timing of every major period in your chart.
Each nakshatra is divided into four padas, or quarters, of 3°20' each. The pada tells you which navamsa sign the Moon occupies, adding precision that the nakshatra alone does not give.
No. Your janma nakshatra is fixed at birth. What changes daily is the transiting nakshatra, which is what panchang and muhurat calculations use.
For the nakshatra itself, an approximate time is usually enough since the Moon stays in one nakshatra for around a day. For the correct pada, a precise time helps.
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What does your birth star actually mean for you?
Your nakshatra sets your dasha sequence — the timing of every major phase in your life. An astrologer can tell you which one you are in now.
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