Your birth star is a position, not a date
Ask someone their zodiac sign and they will answer from their birthday. Ask for their Janma Nakshatra and the birthday is not enough, because the answer depends on where the Moon was at the hour you were born.
The Moon travels the full circle of the ecliptic in about 27.3 days. Vedic astrology divides that circle into 27 stations of 13°20' each, so the Moon spends roughly one day in each. The station it occupied at your birth is your Janma Nakshatra, and it is the value that starts your Vimshottari dasha sequence and drives a traditional marriage-matching report.
Why the hour matters more than you would expect
Because a nakshatra lasts about a day, the Moon frequently changes station partway through it. Two people born on the same date, hours apart, can hold different birth stars. Boundaries fall at whatever time they fall, including the middle of the night.
Each nakshatra is also quartered into four padas of about six hours. Even when the nakshatra is certain, an approximate birth time makes the pada the first thing to treat as unreliable, and the pada is what fixes your navamsa sign.
Your birth place matters for the same reason. The calculation converts your birth moment to a universal time before locating the Moon, so longitude and time zone shift the result near a boundary.
Working it out
The nakshatra calculator takes a birth date, time and place and returns the station, its pada and the Moon sign that pada belongs to, using the Lahiri ayanamsa. If you already know your birth star, go straight to the 27 nakshatra guides.
A word on spellings: transliteration varies, so Ashlesha is written Aslesha, Mula appears as Moola, and Mrigashira as Mrigasira. They are the same stations.
The 27 stations
Ashwini Bharani Krittika Rohini Mrigashira Ardra Punarvasu Pushya Ashlesha Magha Purva Phalguni Uttara Phalguni Hasta Chitra Swati Vishakha Anuradha Jyeshtha Mula Purva Ashadha Uttara Ashadha Shravana Dhanishta Shatabhisha Purva Bhadrapada Uttara Bhadrapada Revati
What to read next
Each guide covers its station's ruling planet, presiding deity and symbol, the matching categories used when two charts are compared, its four padas, and the dates the Moon passes through it. Start with your own, then look at the stations either side of it — the neighbours are often more informative than the description of any single one.
