Western astrology leads with your sun sign. Vedic astrology leads with the Moon — specifically, which of the 27 lunar mansions (nakshatras) the Moon occupied at the moment you were born. Each nakshatra spans 13°20′ of the zodiac, and each divides into four padas(quarters) of 3°20′.
Why the Moon, not the Sun?
The Sun changes signs roughly monthly; the Moon changes nakshatras roughly daily. That finer resolution is why classical matchmaking — Guna Milan in the North, the ten Poruthams in the South — is built on nakshatras: two people born the same month usually share a sun sign, but rarely a birth star.
Getting yours right
Because the Moon moves fast, an accurate nakshatra needs your birth date, and near sign boundaries, the birth time and place matter too. The ayanamsha (the correction between tropical and sidereal zodiacs) also shifts results slightly — Milaps defaults to Lahiri, the standard used by the Indian government ephemeris.
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