What is my zodiac sign?

Seen from Earth, the Sun travels through all twelve zodiac signs once a year, spending about a month in each. Your Sun sign is the sign the Sun occupied on the day you were born.

The Sun does not respect the calendar, though. It crosses from one sign into the next at a precise moment that lands on a slightly different date each year, sometimes March 20, sometimes March 21. That is why two people born on the same date in different years can carry different signs.

If your birthday sits near a boundary, the exact crossing in your birth year settles which sign is yours. This tool computes the Sun's position for your actual birth date and names the sign it was really in.

On a true cusp day even the hour matters. The Sun can change signs at lunchtime, putting a morning baby and an evening baby in different signs. Your full birth chart, computed to the minute, removes the doubt.

The dates you see printed for each sign are averages. The Sun crosses from one sign into the next at a precise instant that drifts by up to a day or so across the years, nudged by leap years and the slow turning of the calendar.

So a boundary that is usually March 21 can fall on March 20. The calculator computes the Sun's real position for your exact date, so a boundary birthday lands on the right side.

The twelve signs run in a fixed sequence that the Sun walks each year: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. Each covers about thirty degrees of the Sun's yearly path and roughly a month of the calendar.

The table above lists every sign with its usual date range, so you can see where your birthday falls and which signs sit on either side. On the boundary days between two signs, the calculator settles which one is yours.

Every month holds two zodiac signs, because the Sun moves into the next sign between the 19th and the 23rd. In the usual table, January is Capricorn until the 19th and Aquarius from the 20th, February is Aquarius until the 18th and Pisces from the 19th, and March is Pisces until the 20th and Aries from the 21st. April is Aries until the 19th and Taurus from the 20th, May is Taurus until the 20th and Gemini from the 21st, and June is Gemini until the 20th and Cancer from the 21st.

The second half of the year works the same way. July is Cancer until the 22nd and Leo from the 23rd, August is Leo until the 22nd and Virgo from the 23rd, and September is Virgo until the 22nd and Libra from the 23rd. October is Libra until the 22nd and Scorpio from the 23rd, November is Scorpio until the 21st and Sagittarius from the 22nd, and December is Sagittarius until the 21st and Capricorn from the 22nd. Each month also has a page with a day-by-day table, such as the July zodiac sign page and the October zodiac sign page.

Most Western astrology, and this calculator, uses the tropical zodiac, which ties the signs to the seasons and the spring equinox. A second system, the sidereal zodiac used in Vedic astrology, ties them to the constellations, which have drifted over the centuries, so its dates run a few weeks later.

Neither is more correct; they come from different traditions. This calculator gives your tropical sign, and the sidereal chart calculator gives the Vedic one.

Astrologers read your Sun sign as your core: your sense of self, your vitality and the direction you are growing in. It is the part a daily horoscope by sign is written for, and the one most people mean when they ask your sign.

It is also the part that groups you with everyone born in the same month, which is exactly why it is only a beginning. Your Moon and your rising sign are what start to tell you apart from them.

The Sun sign is one line of a much longer letter. Your Moon describes how you feel, your rising sign how you enter a room, and the houses and aspects tie it all together into something that is yours alone.

NovaOracles computes that full picture from real astronomy, personal to the minute and place you were born, and reads it for you every day.

Your birth date is enough on most days; near a sign change, add the year and, if you have it, the time. The calculation runs in your browser and the tool is free. After your Sun sign, your Moon sign and rising sign are the next two layers.

The zodiac explained and the zodiac fundamentals guide cover the twelve signs, and the big three calculator puts Sun, Moon and rising side by side.