Astronomers used coordinate systems to find and map objects.

Because Earth's time is not

exact, Astronomers rely on Sidereal time.

A sidereal day is two successive upper meridian crossings by the Sun of the Vernal Equinox -
of course and easier way to remember this is that a sidereal day is measured by a complete
Earth rotation with respect to the stars (not the Sun which would be a standard Solar day).

Vernal Equinox is when the Sun passes the Celestial Equator between the northern and
southern hemisphere.

Vernal Equinox is also known as the first day of Spring - or (around) March 21.

Midnight at the Vernal Equinox is 00:00 hours local Sidereal time.

It is also important to understand that Astronomer's often use different times than we are used
to - for example our watches are in sync with the Sun. This means that one day is equal to
Earth's rotation with respect to the Sun. This is called a Solar day. For more accuracy,
Astronomer's use Sidereal time, Earth's rotation with respect to the stars. This means that the
same constellation appears at the same place after a complete rotation of the Earth. When
comparing a Solar day to a Sidereal day, subtract 4 minutes from each other:

Sidereal Day = Solar Day - 4 minutes

This is why the night sky is different depending on the time of year, they rise 4 minutes
earlier each night. So why 4 minutes?

A complete circle is 360° and Earth orbits the Sun in 365.25 days, or about 1° a day.

An Earth rotation is also 360 which is 24 hours (or 1440 minutes). Divide 360° into 1440
minutes and there is 4 minutes left over. To match with Sidereal time, the Earth must rotate
1° more for the Sun to appear in the same spot day by day.

A Sidereal Month is also used, and is the orbit of the Moon with respect to the stars which is
27.3 days. A Synodic Month is the "standard" Moon orbit about the Earth - from full moon to
full moon - which is 29.5 days.
Way to cast a horoscope
To caste a horoscope, following accurate details are required:

Date of birth
Time of birth
Place of birth.

Time of Birth: It is recorded for India as IST - Indian Standard Time (and for other countries
as GMT - Greenwich Mean Time). GMT is 5½ hours ahead of IST. But for casting a
horoscope, Local Mean Time is used, which depends on the place of birth.

Place of Birth: Logitude and latitude of the place of birth are used to find the time correction
to be applied to the IST, to find out the Local Mean Time.

Longitude: It is the arc drawn from North Pole to South Pole to mark the location in degrees
of a particular place from a central place (Greenwich). All places are located either to the
West or to the East of Greenwich. For example, the longitude of Bombay is 72° 50' E.

Latitude: It is the arc drawn to mark the location in degrees of a particular place North or
South of Equator. For example, the latitude of Bombay is 18° 58' N.

Sidereal Time: It is the time taken by the earth to make one full rotation. It is not exactly 24
hours, but goes on changing according to increase or decrease in the duration of days and
nights. It is called Vernal Equinox time and it is a measure of earth's rotation with respect to
the equinox, which has a very small retrograde motion. Sidereal time is used for calculation
of the Ascendant.

CALCULATION OF ASCENDANT

For making the horoscope, first of all we have to calculate the Ascendant. Ascendant is the
rising sign at the time of birth. Let us see how the Ascendant is calculated. This will be done
with the help of two books, viz. Table of Ascendants, and Annual Ephemeries, 1993 (for the
year of birth) by Lahiri. These two books can be procured from the market.

Details of sample birth are once again given below. We would calculate Ascendant for
this.
Date of birth : 10.12.1993,
Time of birth : 3.50 AM IST
Place of birth : Bombay.

We have indicated the Longitude and Latitude of Bombay as above. These were taken from
page 101 of the book "Table of Ascendants". This book contains the necessary information
about many major cities of India and abroad. If the city required is not given therein, kindly
see the Atlas for these details. And, if Atlas is not handy, nearest city can be taken. But for
accurate casting of horoscope, accurate details are required.
As made clear earlier, in a northern horoscope, Ascending sign is written in the top centre and
then zodiac signs are continued anti-clockwise. Later on planets are placed in the horoscope.
So, to calculate the Ascendant sign, the first Step is to find out the Local Mean Time (LMT).

Step 1

Convert the IST to LMT. There are two ways to find out the correction time to IST to
obtain LMT::

i. Take the Longitude of Bombay, i.e. 72° 50' N.

Formula for getting the correction time to IST to find out LMT is 15° = 1 hour, or 1° = 4
minutes
(Please note, Longitude is given in degrees (°), minutes (') and seconds (''), [ 1° = 60', 1' =
60''), whereas the time is given in hrs, minutes and seconds [1 hr = 60 minutes, 1 minute = 60
seconds]. Do not confuse the minutes of Longitude with the minutes of time.
As per above formula, divide Longitude 72° 50' by 15 to know the LMT. It comes to: 4 hr 51
mt 20 secs. How? This is shown below to facilitate your understanding of the calculations.
{72°/15 = 4 12/15 (i.e. 4 hrs + 12/15 hrs)
12/15 x 60 (to make minutes) = 48 minutes
Hence, 4 hr 48 minutes
Now 50' /15 = 3 5/15 (i.e. 3 minutes + 5/15 or 1/3 minutes).
1/3 x 60 (to make seconds) = 20 seconds.
Hence, 4 hrs, 48+3 minutes, 20 seconds = 4 h 51 m 20 s.
Now deduct 5 h 30 m 0 s (as GMT is +5h 30 m 0 s of IST) from 4 h 51m 20s:
4 h 51 m 20 s
- 5 h 30 m 0 s
- 0 h 38 m 40s

This means, 38 m 40 s should be deducted from IST to find LMT.

Step II

The next step is to find out the sidereal time for the given date, time and place of birth.

Sidereal time for 10th December

(From page 3, Table of Asc) 17 h 14 m 07 s
Correction to Indian sidereal time for Bombay (From page 101, last column, Table of
Asc) + 06 s
Correction for 1993 (From page 4, Table II, Table of Asc) + 1 m 52 s
Sidereal time for 12 Noon on 10.12.1993 for Bombay
17 h 16 m 05s ..B
Now, let us calculate sidereal time for the time of birth on 10.12.1993 for Bombay: As the
birth is before 12 Noon, deduct from 12 h 00 m 00 s
LMT 3 h 11 m 20 s

8 h 48 m 40 s ... C

(For afternoon birth, there is no need of this deduction. Correction to increase the time
interval is apllied straight to the LMT).
Now apply correction to increase the time interval (From page 5, Table IV, Table of Asc):

for 8 hr + 1 m 19 s

for 48 m + 8s

for 8 hr 48 m: 1 m 27 s ..... D

Now, add C and D. This comes to 8 h 50 m 07 s.

Sidereal time at 12 Noon 17 h 16 m 05 s

Less corrected time interval - 8 h 50 m 07 s

(For birth in the afternoon, this should be added.)

Sidereal Time for the given 8h 25 m 58 s ...E

birth time:

Step III

Now to find out the Ascendant, refer to Tables given in the book Table of Ascendants
for various latitudes. Search for the latitude of Bombay (or its nearest place, if the same is
not available). On page 29, Table for Latitude 19° N is given. As given earlier, the latitude
for Bombay, the required place of birth, is 18° 58' N (say, 19
° N).

In this page, we have to search for the Ascendant for the Sidereal Time given above as, 8 hr
25 m 58 s as at E.

Ascendant for

For 8 h 24 m 6s 100 46'

For 8 h 28 m 6s 110 41'

Hence for 4 m 55'
('s' is the zodiac sign, Degree (°) and minute (') already explained above).

If we deduct the former from the latter, we get 4 minutes = 55 m but we need 2 minutes (8h
24 m + 1 m 58' (1 m 58' is approximately equal to 2') = 8 h 26 m. So for 2 minutes, we
get 28 m (55/2: 27.5, say 28).

Therefore, Ascendant for 8 h 25 m 58 s (Or say, 8 h 26 m)

= 6s 10° 46'

+ 28'
6s 11 14'

Step IV
Now, apply correction for Ayanamasha for 1993, as per page 6 of Tables of Ascedants,
which is -46'.

Therefore, Ascendant for the required birth: 6 s 11° 14'

- 46'

Ascendant(I): 6s 10° 28'

This means, Ascending sign is Libra (7), and it has travelled 10° 28'in Libra.

CALCULATION OF LONGITUDE OF PLANETS

Now to place the planets in the horoscopes, longitudes of planets have to be calculated. For
this, we proceed as under:

1.Refer to Annual Ephemeris, 1993. Longitudes of different planets for the entire year,
month-wise, day-wise, have been given as at 5.30 AM IST. On page 30, search the required
date, i.e. 10th December. Against this the longitudes for planets on 10.12.1993 at 5.30 AM
are given. But our required birth time is 3.50 AM, i.e. 22h 20 m after 9.12.1993 at 5.30 AM.

2.Find out the longitudes of planets as on 9.12.1993 at 5.30 AM from page 30, and add the
distance covered by planets in 22 h 20 m. This can be done in the following way :

Find out the longitudes of planets as given below :

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9.12.1993 10.12.1993 Difference
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
s ° ' s ° '
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sun 7 - 23 - 08 7 - 24 - 09 1° 1'
Moon 5 - 24 - 07 6 - 8 - 36 14° 29'
Mars 7 - 27 - 58 7 - 28 - 43 45'
Mercury 7 - 9 - 10 7 - 10 - 41 1° 31'
Jupiter 6 - 12 - 01 6 - 12 - 12 11'
Venus 7 - 13 - 46 7 - 15 - 02 1° 16'
Saturn 10- 1 - 20 10- 1 - 24 4'
Rahu 7 - 9 - 12 7 - 9 - 14 2'
Ketu 1 - 9 - 12 1 - 9 - 14 2'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Calculation of Longitude of Sun

Now we would use the proportional logarithms tables provided in the Annual Ephemeris,
1993 in the end. Horizontally, degrees or hours are given, and vertically, minutes are given.
As calculated above, speed of Sun comes to 1° 1'.

Log for 1° 1' (From the above Table) 1.3730

Add log for the difference of 22 h 20 m 0.0313
(Take horizontally 22 h and vertically 20',
and see them meet at 0313) 1.4043

Now, search this figure (1.4043) in the above Table. The nearest figure is 1.4025. This is
written at the cross-section of 0° 57'. This means Sun has traveled 57' in 22 h 20'.

Longitude of Sun on 9.12.1993 7 s 23° 08' at 5.30 AM

Add the distance covered in 0 s 00° 57' 22 hr 20 m

Longitude of Sun at the given birth time 7s 24° 05'

Similarly, we can calculate for other planets

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