How we know

For you: the Moon sign or star zone you see is where the Moon actually is today, not a guess or a table copied from somewhere.

We work out where the Sun, Moon and planets are using the Swiss Ephemeris, a set of tables that astronomers and astrologers around the world use, built on NASA's own planet data. It is accurate to well under a second of arc, far finer than any reading needs.

For you: the dates and times you see match the sky over your own head.

Days, sunrises, moon phases and festival dates are all worked out for your own time zone and town. A festival that falls on one date in New York can fall on the next day in Sydney, and we show you yours.

For you: when we say what a day is good for, it is what that tradition has said for centuries, put in plain words.

Each sky follows its own tradition's rules, taken from the classic texts and from respected scholars who translated them. For the Indian sky that includes Varahamihira's Brihat Jataka and Mantreswara's Phaladeepika. For the Chinese sky it includes the T'ung Shu almanac, translated by Martin Palmer, and Joey Yap's BaZi books. For the calendars we use works such as Edward Henning on the Tibetan calendar and Rohinton Kadva's Shenshai calendars.

For you: you can plan around the dates you see, with an honest note where a community may choose differently.

Every festival follows its own calendar's rule, such as a lunar day, a solar date or the first sight of the new Moon. We check the results against each community's own published calendars in several cities around the world. Where a date depends on the Moon being seen, we say it may move by a day.

For you: what we show as certain really is, and you can see where a little more detail would help.

If you were born within a few minutes of the Moon changing sign, or close to the hour a Chinese pillar changes, we show 'probably' instead of pretending to be sure. Adding your birth time makes the reading sharper.

For you: whichever sky or calendar you explore, it is told with care for the people it belongs to.

We are asking people who practise each tradition to read our days and festival pages, so they sound the way that community actually speaks about them.

For you: take what helps, leave the rest, and try another sky whenever you're curious. You can switch back any time.

Astro is a calm way to notice your days. It suggests a mood, a small thing to try and a good time for it. It never predicts what will happen to you, and it is not advice on health, money or big life decisions.