Celestial and Standard lines

Preparing a Kundali is very easy these days. You can prepare the Kundali of a person by entering the details of the person in a computer. But, it will be interesting to prepare a Kundali on your own. You will be able to prepare a Kundali yourself in few seconds. You will have to understand few rules of astronomy and mathematics for this. Let us first understand the astronomical terms.

Longitude

Longitudes are the angular distance of a place from the standard meridian. The distance towards east or west of a place from standard meridian is known as longitude. Intellectuals have decided a place known as standard meridian by common consensus. That place is Greenwich. The distance towards east or west from Greenwich is known as longitude. Apart from this, every country has its own standard meridian line. It is used to find out Local Time.

Latitude

The distance of a place towards north or south from equator is known as Latitude. In other words, the angular distance of a place towards north or south from equator is known as latitude. The angular distance of ecliptic towards North or South is also known as latitude.

Zodiac

The twelve signs appear in the sky one by one. The path of these twelve signs is like an imaginary band. This imaginary band is known as zodiac. The extended path of Sun is known as ecliptic which means the path on which Sun revolves because of which there is the occurrence of day and night. In reality the earth revolves around Sun. But, ecliptic is used for mathematical calculations and for the study of celestial bodies.

The extended band for 9 degrees on both sides of ecliptic is known as Zodiac. A complete Zodiac is of 360 degrees. We obtain the twelve signs on dividing the Zodiac into 12 equal parts. One part of a sign is of 30 degrees. We obtain 27 Nakshatra on dividing the Zodiac into 27 equal parts. Hence, we can say that every sign contains 2 and ¼ Nakshatra. Also, we can say that there are nine stages of Nakshatra in a sign.

Equinoctial Point

The ecliptic and the celestial equator intersect each other at two points. These points are known as equinoctial points. The Sun passes two times through these points in an year. The day and night are equal when Sun passes through these two points. The two days are 21 March and 23 September. The day and night are equal on these two days.

Indian and western Astrology

There is a slight difference between Indian and western astrology. In Indian astrology, the beginning point of all the twelve signs is the Chitra Nakshatra. In this system, the Aries sign is considered to begin from the point opposite to the Chitra Nakshatra at 180 degrees. It was discovered in 285 A.D. that Vernal equinoctial point was shifting 50 seconds behind with every passing year. That is why, Indian astrology considers the beginning point of Aries sign as the point opposite to the Chitra Nakshatra.

On the contrary, western astrology considers the beginning of signs from the Vernal equinoctial point which means that Aries sign begins at Vernal equinoctial point.

• The Zodiac which begins from Vernal equinoctial point is known as movable zodiac.
• The Zodiac which begins from a fixed point is known as fixed zodiac.
• Indian astrology uses the fixed Zodiac system.