Nakshatra finder: find your birth star

Published 2 November 2026 · Reviewed 2 November 2026 — reviewed every six months

This nakshatra finder tells you which of the twenty-seven lunar mansions the Moon occupied at the moment you were born — your janma nakṣatra, or birth star — and which of its four pādas. Below are the full table of the twenty-seven stars, how to read it by hand, and what the birth star is used for in classical Jyotiṣa.

How the nakshatra finder works

The zodiac of Jyotiṣa is sidereal: it is measured from the fixed stars, not from the equinox. Its 360 degrees are divided into twenty-seven equal nakṣatras of 13°20′ each, beginning at the first point of Aries with Aśvinī and ending with Revatī at the last degree of Pisces.

Your birth star is the nakṣatra in which the Moon's sidereal longitude falls at the moment of birth. The Moon moves through about one nakṣatra a day, so the date alone is not enough: the time and place of birth decide it, and on many days the star changes in the middle of the day.

Each nakṣatra is divided again into four pādas, or quarters, of 3°20′. The twenty-seven nakṣatras therefore hold 108 pādas, and every pāda coincides with one navāṃśa — which is why the pāda of the Moon also fixes the Moon's sign in the navāṃśa chart.

Find your nakṣatra by hand in three steps

1. Take the Moon's sidereal (nirayaṇa) longitude at your birth from a Vedic chart. A Western chart gives a tropical longitude; subtract the ayanāṃśa — about 23° to 24° for births of the last hundred years with the Lahiri value — to make it sidereal.
2. Write the longitude on the full 0° to 360° scale: Aries runs from 0° to 30°, Taurus from 30° to 60°, and so on through the signs to Pisces, from 330° to 360°.
3. Find the row of the table below whose span contains that longitude. That row is your nakṣatra, and the pāda is the quarter of its span in which the Moon sits.

The twenty-seven nakṣatras and their spans

Spans are sidereal longitudes on the 0° to 360° scale. The lord is the graha that rules the star in the Viṃśottarī daśā; the deity is the one named for the star in the Vedic star lists. Each span divides into four pādas of 3°20′, counted from its start.

What your birth star is used for

Viṃśottarī daśā. The lord of the birth star opens the 120-year cycle of planetary periods, and how far the Moon has already travelled through the star decides how much of that first period remains at birth. That is why a few minutes' error in the birth time can shift every daśā date.

Naming. Each pāda carries a sound syllable, and the traditional nāmakaraṇa gives the child a name that begins with the syllable of the Moon's pāda.

Marriage matching. Several of the eight kūṭas of Aṣṭakūṭa matching — tārā, yoni and gaṇa among them — are read directly from the birth stars of the two partners.

Muhūrta and daily guidance. Counting from your birth star to the star of the day gives the day's tārābala — the ninefold cycle from Janma to Parama Maitra that the muhūrta texts use to judge whether a day favours you.

Worship. Every nakṣatra has a presiding deity, and many families keep the day each month when the Moon returns to the birth star for worship and charity.

Nakṣatra, rāśi and lagna are three different things

The birth star is not the sun sign of Western astrology. Your rāśi, or Moon sign, is the sign the Moon occupies; your nakṣatra is the finer division inside it; your lagna is the sign rising on the eastern horizon at birth. Two people with the same rāśi can have different birth stars.

Why two nakṣatra calculators can disagree

Different ayanāṃśa. A sidereal zodiac needs an ayanāṃśa, and the ones in use differ by up to about a degree. Near the edge of a nakṣatra that is enough to change the star.

Wrong time zone or daylight saving. The Moon moves a little more than half a degree an hour, so an hour's error in the time zone moves it by that much.

Sunrise-based days. In the Hindu calendar the day begins at sunrise, so a birth before dawn belongs to the previous day's pañcāṅga — but the Moon's position itself depends only on the moment of birth.

Classical sources

The twenty-seven stars, their lords and the Viṃśottarī cycle are taught in Bṛhat Parāśara Horā Śāstra. The star list with its deities goes back to the Taittirīya Saṃhitā and the Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa, and Muhūrta Cintāmaṇi applies the birth star to the choice of auspicious times.

Let AiJyot find your nakṣatra for you

Every chart cast in AiJyot shows the nakṣatra and pāda of the Moon and of every other graha, computed on our own engine from the birth time and place, with the Viṃśottarī daśā that follows from it. See the birth nakṣatra of a sample chart in the live demo — no signup needed.

Nakshatra finder: common questions

What is my nakshatra if I only know my date of birth?

The date narrows it to one or two stars, because the Moon spends roughly a day in each nakṣatra. To be certain you need the time and the place of birth as well; without them, treat the answer as provisional.

Is the birth star the same as the Moon sign?

No. The Moon sign (rāśi) is one of twelve signs of 30° each; the birth star is one of twenty-seven nakṣatras of 13°20′ each. Every sign holds two and a quarter nakṣatras, so people with the same Moon sign can have different birth stars.

What is a nakṣatra pāda?

A pāda is one quarter of a nakṣatra, 3°20′ wide, and the zodiac holds 108 of them. The pāda refines the reading of the star, fixes the Moon's sign in the navāṃśa chart and gives the opening syllable traditionally used for a child's name.

Which ayanāṃśa does this nakshatra finder use?

The table is sidereal. AiJyot computes charts with the Lahiri (Citrapakṣa) ayanāṃśa by default — the one adopted for India's national calendar — and other ayanāṃśas can be chosen inside the app.

What is Abhijit, the twenty-eighth nakṣatra?

Older star lists add Abhijit, a short star between Uttarāṣāḍhā and Śravaṇa, making twenty-eight. Jyotiṣa still uses it in muhūrta and in some cakras, but the birth star and the Viṃśottarī daśā always use the twenty-seven equal nakṣatras.

Can my birth star change if my birth time is corrected?

Yes, when the Moon was close to the boundary between two stars. A correction of a few minutes can move it across, and with it the lord of the first daśā. Birth-time rectification exists for exactly this case.

Is the nakshatra finder free?

Yes. This guide and its table are free to use, and the live demo shows a sample chart with its birth nakṣatra without signing up. Charts for your own birth details are part of AiJyot, which is currently by invitation.