How we cast your chart
The sky we read
Cosmic Dial uses the sidereal sky: the zodiac anchored to the fixed stars, the way Indian astrology has always measured it. Western horoscope sites use a zodiac tied to the seasons, and the two have slowly drifted about 24 degrees apart over the centuries. So if a Western site calls you an Aries rising and your chart here says Pisces, nothing is wrong. You are seeing the older map.
The measurement
Every position is computed from the actual sky, calibrated against the official Indian Astronomical Ephemeris to within a fraction of an arc-minute. Houses follow the whole-sign tradition; Rahu and Ketu follow the traditional mean node, the convention of Lahiri's own ephemeris. We verify our calculations against published national almanac values from 1900 to 2020.