Planetary Position Calculator
See exactly where all nine grahas stood when you were born — sign, degree, nakshatra, and the three states that change how a planet behaves: retrograde, combust, and its dignity in the sign it occupies. This is the raw material every other reading is built from.
What this calculator works out
- Sign and degree for all nine grahas
- Where each planet sat at your birth, to two decimal places of sidereal longitude.
- Nakshatra and pada per planet
- Not just the Moon — every graha falls in a nakshatra, and its lord colours how that planet behaves.
- Dignity
- Whether each planet is exalted, debilitated, in its own sign, or in a friend, enemy or neutral sign.
- Retrograde and combustion flags
- The two states that most change how a planet expresses itself.
How it works
Positions are computed from the Swiss Ephemeris and converted to sidereal longitudes using the Lahiri ayanamsa. Dignity compares each planet against its own, exaltation and debilitation signs. Combustion is flagged when a planet sits too close to the Sun to be visible, using the traditional per-planet orbs. Retrograde is read from the planet's apparent daily motion.
Step by step
- Your birth details are converted to Universal Time and then to a Julian Day.
- The Swiss Ephemeris returns each planet's tropical longitude and its daily motion.
- The Lahiri ayanamsa is subtracted from every longitude to give sidereal positions.
- Negative daily motion flags retrograde. Rahu and Ketu are always retrograde by definition.
- Each planet's angular distance from the Sun is compared against its traditional combustion orb.
- The sign is checked against the exaltation, debilitation, own-sign and friendship tables to assign dignity.
A worked example
Input: 15 August 1995, 07:12, Delhi
- Sun tropical 141.79° − ayanamsa 23.80° = 117.99° sidereal
- 117.99° ÷ 30 = sign 3 (Karka), remainder 27.99°
- Nakshatra: 117.99° ÷ 13.333° = 8.85 → Ashlesha, pada 4
- Karka is a friend sign for the Sun → dignity "Friend"
Result: Sun in Karka at 27.99°, Ashlesha pada 4, friendly dignity, not combust, direct motion.
How to read your result
- Retrograde is not a malfunction
- It is an apparent backward motion caused by Earth overtaking, or being overtaken by, another planet. Classical texts read a retrograde graha as unusually strong but inward-turned — working through repetition and revisiting rather than forward push.
- Combustion weakens expression, not presence
- A planet too close to the Sun to be visible is read as scorched. It is still in the chart and still rules what it rules; it just struggles to show itself. Mercury combusts far more often than Saturn because its orb is tighter and it never strays far from the Sun.
- Dignity is one input, not a score
- An exalted planet in a house that does not suit it can underperform a merely friendly one that is well placed. Dignity describes comfort in the sign, nothing more.
What changes the answer
- The Moon moves about half a degree an hour; the outer planets barely move in a day. So birth time affects the Moon's exact degree far more than Saturn's.
- House placement depends entirely on the ascendant, which is fully birth-time driven — so a wrong time changes houses even where signs are right.
- Rahu and Ketu are not physical bodies. They are the two points where the Moon's orbit crosses the ecliptic, always exactly 180° apart.
- Mean nodes are used here. True-node calculations shift Rahu and Ketu slightly and some software prefers them.
Frequently asked questions
What does retrograde actually mean?
It is an apparent backward motion caused by Earth overtaking, or being overtaken by, another planet — nothing physically reverses. Classical texts read a retrograde planet as unusually strong but inward-turned, working through repetition and revisiting. Rahu and Ketu are always retrograde by definition.
What is a combust planet?
A planet too close to the Sun to be seen. Astrologically it is read as scorched — present in the chart but struggling to express itself. Each planet has its own traditional orb, which is why Mercury combusts far more often than Saturn.
What is planetary dignity?
How comfortable a planet is in the sign it occupies. Own sign and exaltation are strong, debilitation is weak, and friend or enemy signs sit in between. It is one input into strength, not a verdict on its own.
Why do these degrees differ from a Western chart?
Western charts are tropical. Subtract about 24 degrees from a tropical longitude and you get the sidereal one shown here. The planets are in the same physical place; only the zero point differs.
Are Rahu and Ketu real planets?
No — they are the two points where the Moon's orbit crosses the ecliptic, which is why eclipses happen near them. Vedic astrology treats them as full grahas with strong significations, but they have no physical body and always sit exactly 180° apart.
Does birth time change these positions?
For the Moon, meaningfully — it moves about half a degree an hour. For the outer planets, barely. But the house each planet falls into depends on the ascendant, which is entirely time-driven.
Related astrology concepts
- Planet guides — what each graha does in every house and sign
- Divisional charts — the same planets seen at finer resolution
- Ashtakavarga — scores every sign these planets occupy
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