Rising Sign Calculator
Find your ascendant, the sign rising on the eastern horizon when you were born. You need your birth time and place.
What your rising sign is
Your rising sign, or ascendant, is the point of the zodiac that was crossing the eastern horizon at the minute and place of your birth. Astrology reads it as your first impression and your approach to new situations: the manner people meet before they know your sun or moon.
Because the Earth turns, a new sign rises roughly every two hours, and some signs rise faster than others. That is why the exact time matters more here than for any other result. Ten minutes can change the degree, and near a boundary it can change the sign; the result warns you when you are within 15 minutes of one.
We turn your local time into UTC with your time-zone records, find the sidereal time at your longitude, and solve for the ecliptic point on the horizon at your latitude. Every value used is shown, and you can edit the offset if the records for your birth year look wrong.
What each rising sign means
| Rising sign | First impression | Meets the new |
|---|---|---|
| Aries | Direct, fast, a little restless | Head on |
| Taurus | Calm, solid, pleasant | Slowly, testing the ground |
| Gemini | Chatty, curious, youthful | With questions |
| Cancer | Soft, guarded, kind | From behind a shell, then warmly |
| Leo | Bright, confident, generous | Making an entrance |
| Virgo | Neat, modest, observant | By noticing details |
| Libra | Charming, fair, polished | By finding common ground |
| Scorpio | Intense, reserved, magnetic | By reading the room first |
| Sagittarius | Open, funny, frank | With enthusiasm |
| Capricorn | Serious, capable, formal | With a plan |
| Aquarius | Friendly, unusual, detached | On its own terms |
| Pisces | Gentle, dreamy, adaptable | By sensing the mood |
Worked examples
- Born 1990-03-05 at 10:00 in New York (UTC-5):
Geminiat 5 degrees. - The same birth, exact degree:
05°32′ - Born 1985-11-29 at 08:15 in London:
Sagittarius - Born 1972-06-15 at 23:40 in Sydney:
Pisces - Born 1990-03-05 at 09:33 in New York the ascendant is 27°26′ Taurus, close to the edge. Born after about 09:41 it would be
Gemini
How this is calculated
Local time to UTC with the browser's Intl time-zone data (zone from the GeoNames place). Greenwich apparent sidereal time from astronomy-engine (IAU 2006 + equation of the equinoxes) plus the east longitude gives the RAMC; with the true obliquity, Ascendant = atan2(cos RAMC, -(sin RAMC cos e + tan latitude sin e)). The sign 15 minutes either side is checked and shown when it differs.