Manual Calculation of Ascendant

In today’s time it is very easy to find out the lagna or ascendant and longitudes of the planets from the
computers. It will be good if we know to calculate manually. There are two methods in calculating the ascendant
manually. One is traditional method and other is the modern method using Table of ascendants.

In this section we will deal with the second method of calculating the ascendant. You require a book called ‘Table
of Ascendants on Nirayana basis’ by N.C. Lahiri to calculate the ascendant. This will be available in all the leading
book stores.

Data Required

Date of Birth

Time of Birth

Place of Birth

Latitude

Longitude

Calculate Local Mean Time (LMT) Correction

Step 1- Find out the longitude of Standard meridian (S.M) for the country or zone. If you know the timezone of
the country, you can calculate the S.M. It will be readily available in Ephemeris book.

Step 2 – Note down the longitude of the place for which ascendant is calculated

Step 3. Find out the difference between longitude of S.M to longitude of place of birth

Step 4. Multiply the difference by 4 (as 1° is equal to 4 minutes and 1’ is equal to 4 seconds). The product will give
you LMT correction

Step 5 – Note down whether the longitude of the place of birth is towards east or west of the standard meridian.
Prefix the sign ‘+’ or ‘-’ to the LMT correction if it is towards east or west of the S.M respectively.

Step 6 – Apply the LMT correction to the standard time to get the LMT.

Calculate Sidereal time

Step 1 – Note down the sidereal time at 12h noon local mean time for 82°30’E longitude from Page No. 2 & 3 of
Table of Ascendants (82°30’ is the longitude of standard meridian for India)

Step 2 – Note down the correction for the given year from the table II on page 3 and 4 of Table of ascendants and
apply to sidereal time in Step 1

Step 3 – Note the correction for the birthplace from table III on page 5 and 100 to 107 of the book.For non-Indian
cities refer page 109 to 111

Step 4 – We get Sidereal time for the given date, year and place by applying the correction for the year (step 2)
and correction for the place (step 3)). Prefix the sign ‘+’ or ‘-’ accordingly. Note that the time is for the local noon
(12hrs). Let us consider this figure as ‘A’

Step 5 – Convert the birth time of epoch into LMT by applying LMT correction. (Step 1 to 6 of first section)

Note down the LMT of birth. You will also get this figure from Table of ascendants page no. 100.

Step 6 – As the sidereal time obtained in step 4 is for 12h local noon, we have to now find out the difference
between LMT to the 12h noon. This is called as Time Interval (T.I.) between the local mean noon and the LMT of
the given moment. If the LMT of the birth time is before noon, subtract it from 12:00 hrs. If it is in the afternoon,
then the LMT itself becomes TIme interval.
Step 7 – Now we have to work out the correction for hours and minutes of the time interval. The time interval to
be increased by applying the correction given in table IV . Let us consider this figure as ‘B’

Step 8 – In case of before noon (AM) birth or LMT, the increased time interval (B) from step  7 is subtracted from
the corrected sidereal time in step 10 (A) and if A<b, class=”hiddenSpellError” data-mce-bogus=”1″ pre=”24 ”
<span=”” 24=”” add=”” then=””>hrs to A and then subtract. In case of afternoon (PM) birth, A and B should be
added. The resulting figure is the Sidereal time of birth or the given moment.

Calculation of Longitude of the Ascendant

Step 1 – Find out the longitude of the lagna for the given latitude from the Table of ascendants from page no. 9 to
79 for the sidereal time obtained from step 8 of previous section. If the exact time is not shown, then take the
two nearest longitudes of either side and subtract from higher to lower. It will give the variation in terms of 4
minutes.

Step 2 – Subtract sidereal time from nearest higher sidereal time of the table and convert it into seconds

Step 3 – Find out the variation for the resulting time by multiplying the figure of step 1 with step 2 and divide the
figure by 240. (since the difference in time is 4 minutes i.e. 4*60 seconds)

Step 4 – Add the figure from step 3 to the lower side of the sidereal time from table of ascendants. So you will get
the longitude of the ascendant.

Step 5 – As the table of Ascendants gives the Nirayana longitudes of ascendant, we have to apply ayanamsa
correction to get the correct longitudes for ascendants. So refer Page no. 6 of ‘Table of Ascendants’ and apply the
correction for the corresponding year. Also note down the prefix (+) or (-) appropriately.The resulting figure will
the longitude of the ascendant.

Let us take one example to illustrate the steps above.

We will find out the ascendant for the given time at September 24 2014 at 8:45 AM Bangalore

First we will find out the Local Mean Time

Step 1 – Longitude of standard meridian of India – 82°30’E

Step 2 – Longitude of place of birth for Bangalore – 77°36’E

Step 3 – Difference of two longitudes – 82°30’ – 77°36’ = 4°54’

Step 4 – Multiply by 4 –                                                  = (4*4) : (54*4)

.                                                                                       =  16 : 216

.                                                                                       =  16+3 : 36     (216-180=36)

.                                                                                       =  19min 36sec

Step 5 – Since longitude of Bangalore is towards east to S.M. prefix ‘-’ = -19min 36sec

Step 6 – Apply LMT correction                                   =  8 hr 45 min – 19 min 36 sec

.                                                                                   = 8hrs : 25min : 24sec

The LMT correction is readily available in the book ‘Table of Ascendants’ from page No. 100 for different cities.

Let us find out the Sidereal Time for given moment

Step 1 – Sidereal time at 12h for 24 Sept

from Page No. 2 of ‘Table of ascendants.                        12h : 10m : 32s

3 – Correction for bangalore (table III on page 5 &

100 to 107, For non-Indian cities refer page 109 to 111)  (+)   0m :  2s

.                                                                                           _____________

Step 4 – Sidereal time on 24-04-2014                            12h : 11m :  68s

Therefore                                                                           12h : 12m : 08s   (A)

.                                                                                         _____________

5 – Given birth time                                                           8h : 45m : 00s

LMT Correction (from Page No. 100) for Bangalore                 19m : 36s

.                                                                                          ______________

LMT of the birth                                                                   8h : 25m : 24s

.                                                                                          ______________

6 – Time Interval (TI): Since it is AM birth,subtract LMT

.     from 12h Noon                                                           12h : 00m : 00s

.                                                                                    (-)    8h : 25m : 24s

.                                                                                          _____________

.                                                                                          3h : 34m : 36s

7 – Correction to increase TI from IV (page 5)

.                                           for 3 hrs                           (+)            0m : 30s

.                                           for 34m : 36s                   (+)            0m : 06s

.                                                                                           ____________

.                                                                                            3h : 34m : 72s

.                                                           Therefore                 3h : 35m : 12s    (B)

8 – Since AM Birth     (A)-(B)                                            12h : 12m : 08s

(If it is PM Birth add (A) and (B)                                (-)    3h : 35m : 12s

.                                                                                      _____________

Sidereal Time of Birth                                                        8h : 36m : 56s

.                                                                                      ________________

Calculate Longitude of the Ascendant

Step 1 – For Bangalore Latitude is 12°58’N  from Page No. 20

.                      For    8h : 40m                                         6s : 15° : 58’

.                                                                                       ___________

For variation of 4 min                                          (+)                     57’

.                                                                                       ____________

2 – Subtract sidereal time from nearest 8h:36m         8h : 36m : 56s

.                                                                                           8h : 36m : 00s

.                                                                                          ____________

If it is more than 1 minutes convert it into  seconds                      56s

3 – Multiply the figures from step 1 and 2

i.e. (57*56)/240 = 13.3

4 –                  Therefore                                                     6s : 15° : 01’

.                                                                                       (+)                13’

.                                                                                            ____________

.                                                                                              6s : 15° : 14’

5 – Ayanamsa correction: refer Page no. 6 of

‘Table of Ascendants’  for 2014                                     (-)          1° : 04’

.                                                                                            _____________

.                                                                                               6s : 14° : 10’

.                                                                                             _____________

6s will be Libra (It starts from Aries as ‘0’, 1 for Taurus etc)

So the ascendant will be in Libra and longitude will be 14° 10’