When was the Sun in a specific sign or nakshatra?

The same search works backwards — set the From date to any past day and the To date up to 730 days later. Swiss Ephemeris DE431 covers 13,201 BCE onward, so historical ranges resolve exactly. This is useful for verifying which Sankranti a past festival fell on, or confirming a natal Sun nakshatra against a birth date.

How do I find when the Sun next enters a specific sign?

Choose “Sign (Rashi)” as the search type, pick the target sign from the dropdown, set a date range up to 730 days, and submit. The tool returns the Sankranti moment (entry) and exit for every occurrence in the range. Because the Sun does not retrograde, each sign appears at most once per year.

How long is a Sun-in-nakshatra window?

About 13.5 days each. Switch the search type to Nakshatra to pick from all 27. Because the Sun moves ~1° per day and a nakshatra spans 13°20′, each nakshatra visit is roughly two weeks long.

How wide should my Sun transit search be?

730 days (two years) from the start date. This covers two full solar cycles — capturing every Sankranti and Sun nakshatra change in the current AND next year in one query. Useful for annual comparisons ("when is Makar Sankranti next year vs this year?"). For deeper history, run separate searches or use the Ravi Peyarchi Year Timeline.

How do I find historical Sankranti dates?

Set the From date to the year you want to check and the To date up to a year later. The tool computes every Sankranti in that range via Swiss Ephemeris DE431, which covers 13,201 BCE to 17,191 CE.

Why do Sankranti dates vary from year to year?

A tropical year (~365.25 days) is slightly shorter than the sidereal year (~365.256 days) the Sankranti dates track. Combined with leap-year corrections in the Gregorian calendar, each Sankranti drifts by a few hours year-to-year, so Makara Sankranti falls on Jan 14 in most years but occasionally Jan 15.

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Find Sun Transit Dates

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Pick a Rashi or Nakshatra + date range (up to 730 days) — get every Sun visit window with entry, exit, and duration.

🔍 Reverse Lookup ♈︎ 12 Signs · 27 Nakshatras

← Sun Transit Hub

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Find Sun Transit Dates

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Max range: 730 days

No transits found for the selected criteria.

Try adjusting the date range or selecting a different sign/nakshatra.

Note: All calculations use Lahiri Ayanamsa (sidereal) and Swiss Ephemeris for high precision. The Sun stays ~30 days in each sign and ~13.3 days in each nakshatra, so a two-year search returns at most 24 sign hits or ~54 nakshatra hits — enough to locate the same Sankranti in the current OR next year in one search. Search range is capped at 730 days.

Also try:

Sun Transit Hub Live Tracker Date Lookup Surya Rashi Peyarchi 2026 Surya Nakshatra Peyarchi 2026

About Finding Sun Transit Dates

Find every date the Sun enters a sign or nakshatra

Use this tool when your question is “when will the Sun be in a specific sign or nakshatra?” or its past-tense twin “when was it?” Pick a Rashi (zodiac sign) or a Nakshatra, then a date range up to 730 days (two years) wide — the range can sit anywhere in the past or future. The tool returns every window in it during which the Sun sits in your chosen target, with entry moment, exit moment, and duration in your local timezone. Because the Sun never retrogrades, each sign appears at most once per year (so up to twice in a 730-day search) and each nakshatra at most 2-3 times. For a single-date lookup (“where was the Sun on my birthday?”), use the Date Lookup tool instead.

Rashi searches — what a Sun-in-sign window is used for

Sankranti planning — every sign entry is a Sankranti. Sun-in-Capricorn returns Makara Sankranti (Jan 14/15, marks Uttarayana and the harvest-donation festival window). Sun-in-Aries returns Mesha Sankranti (Apr 13/14, solar new year for Tamil, Bengali, Punjabi, and Assamese calendars).
Own-sign muhurta — search for Sun in Leo (its own rashi, Simha) to find the ~30-day window classically favoured for leadership decisions, royal muhurta, and high-visibility launches.
Avoiding debilitation — search for Sun in Libra to identify the ~30-day debilitation window; useful if you're timing an event and want to know which weeks to skip for Sun-signified matters (leadership, government, public role).
Personal-chart transits — search your natal Sun sign to find when this year's solar return falls, or a friend's Sun sign for gifting/personal muhurta timing.

Nakshatra searches — finer-grained solar timing

The Sun spends about 13.5 days in each of the 27 nakshatras. Nakshatra-level searches are used for muhurta selection that's more precise than sign-level, especially for the three Sun-owned nakshatras — Krittika, Uttara-Phalguni, and Uttara-Ashadha. These are considered favourable when solar significations (authority, visibility, leadership) matter most. Searching for any of the 27 gives you every ~2-week Sun-in-nakshatra window across your date range.

Common Sun transit searches

Typical questions this reverse lookup answers — use it to check when the Sun was in a target sign or nakshatra last year, or when it will be in one over the next 730 days:

"When will the Sun be in Aries?" / "When was the Sun in Mesha last year?" — Mesha Sankranti (Apr 13/14). Marks solar new year for Tamil, Bengali, Punjabi, and Assamese calendars, and the Sun's exaltation window.
"When will the Sun be in Capricorn?" — Makara Sankranti (Jan 14/15). Marks Uttarayana, the northern journey, and the harvest-donation festival window (Pongal / Lohri / Bihu / Magh Bihu).
"When will the Sun be in Cancer?" — Karka Sankranti (~Jul 16). Marks Dakshinayana, the southern journey.
"When will the Sun be in Leo?" — Simha Sankranti (~Aug 17). The Sun in its own rashi, classically favoured for leadership and royal muhurta.
"When will the Sun be in Libra?" — Tula Sankranti (~Oct 17). The Sun's debilitation window — useful when you want to avoid starting Sun-signified activities (leadership, government, public role).
"When was the Sun in Krittika / Uttara-Phalguni / Uttara-Ashadha?" — the three Sun-owned nakshatras. Favoured for solar-strength muhurta.
"When was the Sun in Ashwini?" / "When will it be in Bharani?" — nakshatra-level searches for verifying natal Sun-nakshatra placement or matching a Vedic almanac day.
"When will the Sun be in Taurus / Gemini / Cancer / Virgo / Scorpio / Sagittarius / Capricorn / Aquarius / Pisces?" — the remaining nine neutral-dignity rashis. Each returns exactly one Sankranti moment and one exit per year in the searched range.
Historical natal verification — search a wide past range for your birth nakshatra to verify natal Sun placement, or run the search on a friend's Sun sign for personalised muhurta timing.

Sun in 2026 — searching a whole year

Year-qualified searches such as "Sun in Krittika 2026 dates" or "when is Sun in Uttara Phalguni this year" are best answered in two steps. Set the From and To fields above to the stretch of 2026 you care about and the results list every entry and exit window inside it. A single search covers up to 730 days, so a full calendar year — or two — fits in one pass.

For a whole year in one view, the Sun Peyarchi 2026 timeline lays out every sign visit for 2026 on a single page, with entry and exit times and dignity windows marked; the Nakshatra Peyarchi timeline does the same at the 27-nakshatra layer. Use this Find tool when you know which nakshatra or rashi you want; use the year timeline when you want the full sequence.

Historical Sun transit lookups

Set the From date to any past year and the To date up to 730 days later to find every Sun-in-target window in that range. The tool uses Swiss Ephemeris DE431, which covers 13,201 BCE through 17,191 CE. Useful for verifying birth-chart Sankranti timing (Panchang publications occasionally differ by a few hours), researching ancestral dates, or checking historical festival timings.

Related tools

Live Tracker — the Sun's current sidereal longitude, sign (Rashi), Nakshatra, Pada, sign lord, and progress through the current sign. Auto-updates through the day.
Date Lookup — the Sun's complete readout at local sunrise for any past or future date. Verify your natal Sun placement or find historical Sankranti timings.
Surya Rashi Peyarchi (Year Timeline) — also called Ravi Peyarchi. Every Sankranti (Sun sign entry) for a chosen year as a card, exactly 12 per year, with Peak Exaltation (Aries) and Peak Debilitation (Libra) windows called out. Use the arrows to view any past or future year, from 13,201 BCE onward.
Surya Nakshatra Peyarchi (Nakshatra Year Timeline) — every Sun Nakshatra visit for a chosen year as a card — 27 cards with pada-level entry / exit times. Sun-owned Nakshatras (Krittika, Uttara-Phalguni, Uttara-Ashadha) highlighted.