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Two zodiacs

Why two zodiacs give different signs

Tropical and sidereal zodiacs cut the same sky into the same twelve signs but start in different places. See why most positions get two different names.

01 · One sky, two scales

The planet stays put; the scale under it differs.

Both zodiacs cut the same circle into twelve equal signs. They only start counting from different places, so in 2026 the sidereal ring sits about 24° round from the tropical one. Move a planet round the sky and compare the two readings.

One sky position read on two zodiacs Two rings of twelve equal signs around the same sky. The outer ring is the tropical zodiac, starting at the March equinox; the inner ring is the sidereal zodiac, turned about 24 degrees. A planet at one position is read as 15°00′ Aries on the outer ring and 20°48′ Pisces on the inner ring. AriTauGemCanLeoVirLibScoSagCapAquPis AriTauGemCanLeoVirLibScoSagCapAquPis March equinox Outer: tropical · inner: sidereal, 2026 Seen from north of the ecliptic; longitude increases anticlockwise.
Different sign names15°00′ Aries tropical · 20°48′ Pisces sidereal
The offset shown is the site’s ayanamsa, True Chitrapaksha, for 2026: 24°12′. It grows by about 50″ a year.

With the scales 24° apart and each sign 30° wide, only positions in the last 6° of a tropical sign keep the same name. About four positions in five read differently.

02 · Sun signs

The same Sun, about 24 days apart.

The Sun moves about a degree a day, so 24° of offset becomes about 24 days. Familiar Sun-sign date lists are tropical; a sidereal chart shifts each one later.

When the Sun enters each sign in 2026, in each zodiac The Sun enters each tropical sign about 24 days before the sidereal sign of the same name. In 2026 it enters tropical Aries on 20 March and sidereal Aries on 14 April, tropical Capricorn on 22 December and sidereal Capricorn on 14 January. TROPICAL SIDEREAL Aries20 Mar14 AprTaurus20 Apr15 MayGemini21 May15 JunCancer21 Jun16 JulLeo23 Jul17 AugVirgo23 Aug17 SepLibra23 Sep17 OctScorpio23 Oct16 NovSagittarius22 Nov16 DecCapricorn22 Dec14 JanAquarius20 Jan13 FebPisces18 Feb15 Mar
Dates the Sun entered each sign in 2026, from the site’s ephemeris, in IST. Each varies by a day or so between years.

Same circle, different starting points

Both zodiacs divide the ecliptic into twelve equal signs of 30°. They disagree only about where 0° Aries is.

  • The tropical zodiac starts at the March equinox, the point where the Sun crosses the celestial equator heading north. It follows the seasons: the Sun enters tropical Aries on the equinox every year.
  • The sidereal zodiac starts at a point fixed against the stars. panchang.now uses the True Chitrapaksha reference, which places the bright star Spica at exactly 180°.

The angle between the two starting points is the ayanamsa. In 2026, on the site’s reference, it is 24°12′. To turn a tropical longitude into a sidereal one, subtract it: a planet at 15°00′ tropical Aries is at 20°48′ sidereal Pisces.

Most positions get two names

With the starting points 24° apart and each sign 30° wide, a position keeps the same sign name in both zodiacs only if it lies in the last 6° or so of a tropical sign. Everywhere else the names differ. Across every day of 2026, about four in five planet positions had different tropical and sidereal sign names.

The planet has not moved. Its distance, speed and place among the stars are the same; only the labels on the two scales differ.

Sun signs a few weeks apart

The Sun moves about a degree a day, so the 24° offset becomes about 24 days. In 2026 the Sun entered tropical Aries on 20 March and sidereal Aries on 14 April, and tropical Capricorn on 22 December and sidereal Capricorn on 14 January. Someone born on 1 April 2026 has the Sun in tropical Aries and in sidereal Pisces.

The familiar Sun-sign date lists in newspapers and apps are tropical. A Kundli on panchang.now is sidereal, so its Sun sign is usually the one before.

Neither is a mistake

The two zodiacs answer different questions. The tropical zodiac tracks the seasons, because the equinox is defined by them. The sidereal zodiac tracks the stars. Because the equinox drifts slowly westward against the stars, the two scales are pulling further apart by about a degree every 72 years, as why the equinox drifts explains.

Sidereal traditions also differ slightly among themselves about the exact starting point; an ayanamsa change shows how little and where it matters. The sidereal and tropical guide covers how the site displays the two.

See the sidereal positions in your own chart on the Kundli page, or explore another topic in Learn.