What Is My Star Sign? Dates, Cusps and the 13th Sign
The 12 star sign dates in one table, plus why they move by a day, what a cusp birthday really means and where Ophiuchus fits in.
If you are asking “what is my star sign?”, the answer is the zodiac sign the Sun was in on the day you were born. In the Western zodiac used by UK horoscopes, the year runs from Aries, starting around 21 March, to Pisces. The table below gives the usual dates for all twelve.
What are the 12 star sign dates?
These are the dates most UK newspapers and websites print. They belong to the tropical zodiac, the system used in Western astrology, which is tied to the seasons. The first and last day of each sign can move by a day in some years, for reasons explained in the next section.
| Star sign | Usual dates | Element |
|---|---|---|
| Aries | 21 March to 19 April | Fire |
| Taurus | 20 April to 20 May | Earth |
| Gemini | 21 May to 20 June | Air |
| Cancer | 21 June to 22 July | Water |
| Leo | 23 July to 22 August | Fire |
| Virgo | 23 August to 22 September | Earth |
| Libra | 23 September to 22 October | Air |
| Scorpio | 23 October to 21 November | Water |
| Sagittarius | 22 November to 21 December | Fire |
| Capricorn | 22 December to 19 January | Earth |
| Aquarius | 20 January to 18 February | Air |
| Pisces | 19 February to 20 March | Water |
For what each sign is like, see our guide to the 12 zodiac signs, their elements and traits.
Why do star sign dates shift by a day between years?
A star sign is not really a set of calendar dates. It is a 30 degree slice of the Sun’s yearly path around the sky. Aries begins at the moment of the March equinox, when day and night are roughly equal, and each of the other signs begins when the Sun has moved on another 30 degrees.
The calendar and the Sun do not keep perfect step. A calendar year has 365 days, but the Earth takes about 365 and a quarter days to go round the Sun. Each year the equinox arrives about six hours later than the year before, until a leap day pulls it back again. That is why the March equinox can fall on 19, 20 or 21 March, and why every sign boundary can wobble by a day.
In 2026 the equinox came at 2.46pm GMT on 20 March. In 2027 it arrives at 8.24pm GMT on 20 March. Printed date tables cannot show this, so they pick the most common day.
What does being born on the cusp really mean?
The cusp is simply the boundary between two signs. Many people born within a few days of it are told they are “a bit of both”. In mainstream astrology that is not how it works. The Sun moves from one sign to the next at an exact minute, so you have one Sun sign, not two.
Take 20 March 2027. A baby born in Britain that morning has the Sun in Pisces. A baby born at 9pm that evening has the Sun in Aries. Same birthday, different star sign. If your birthday falls on or next to a changeover day, check it like this:
- Find your date, year and place of birth, and your time of birth if you can. Our guide on how to find your birth time in the UK lists where to look.
- Enter them into a birth chart calculator and read the Sun’s position. It will show a sign and a degree from 0 to 29.
- If you have no birth time, run the chart twice: once for just after midnight and once for just before the following midnight. If the Sun is in the same sign both times, that is your sign.
- If the two results differ, the changeover happened on your birthday and only a birth time can settle it.
Why do so many cusp-born people feel like a blend? Usually because of the rest of the chart. Mercury and Venus always stay close to the Sun in the sky, so they often sit in the neighbouring sign. Your Moon and rising sign add their own flavour too, as our guide to the Sun, Moon and rising sign explains.
Why might a Vedic chart give you a different sign?
Vedic astrology, the tradition from India also called Jyotish, uses the sidereal zodiac. This measures the signs against the fixed stars rather than the seasons. The two zodiacs lined up many centuries ago, but they have slowly drifted apart, and the gap in 2026 is about 24 degrees.
Since the Sun moves roughly one degree a day, Vedic Sun sign dates run about 24 days later. Aries, for example, lasts from about mid-April to mid-May. Most people therefore find that their Vedic Sun sign is the sign before their Western one. Neither is a mistake. They are two systems measuring from different starting points, and Vedic astrology gives more weight to the Moon sign and rising sign in any case. Our article on the key differences between Vedic and Western astrology covers this in more depth.
Is Ophiuchus the 13th star sign?
Every few years a story goes round that NASA has added a 13th sign called Ophiuchus (say “off-ee-YOO-kus”), the serpent bearer, and that everyone’s star sign has changed. NASA has said plainly that it did nothing of the sort. Its explainer on constellations and the calendar points out that the Babylonians divided the zodiac into twelve equal parts more than 3,000 years ago, even though the Sun passes in front of thirteen constellations.
The key is that signs and constellations are different things. Constellations are star patterns of very unequal size. The Sun spends about 45 days in front of Virgo, about 7 in front of Scorpius and about 18 in front of Ophiuchus, roughly from 29 November to 17 December. Signs are twelve equal slices of 30 degrees that share names with some of those patterns. Western signs are fixed to the seasons, so a constellation boundary does not change them. Your star sign is the same as it was.
Frequently asked questions
What is my star sign if I was born on the cusp?
You have one Sun sign, not two. The Sun changes sign at an exact minute, which varies from year to year. Enter your date, year, time and place of birth into a chart calculator and read the Sun’s sign. Without a birth time, check the start and end of your birthday.
Why do star sign dates differ between websites?
The Sun enters each sign at a slightly different time every year, because the calendar year and the Earth’s orbit do not match exactly. Leap years correct the drift. Published tables choose the most common start date, so they can disagree by a day at either end of a sign.
Is my Vedic star sign different from my Western one?
Often, yes. Vedic astrology uses the sidereal zodiac, measured against the stars, which currently sits about 24 degrees behind the Western tropical zodiac. For most people the Vedic Sun sign is the sign before their Western one. Vedic readings also focus more on the Moon sign and rising sign.
Did NASA change the star signs by adding Ophiuchus?
No. NASA has confirmed it did not change the zodiac. Ophiuchus is a constellation the Sun passes in front of for about 18 days a year, but the twelve signs are equal divisions of the sky set thousands of years ago. Western star signs follow the seasons, not constellation boundaries.
The takeaway
Your star sign is wherever the Sun was at your birth, and for most birthdays the date table is all you need. If you were born on a changeover day, your year and time of birth decide it. A different Vedic sign, or a headline about Ophiuchus, does not make your Western star sign wrong.
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