Panchang in Diffa, Niger Tue 8 Jan 2008

Amavasya follows the tithi at sunrise. Amavasya runs from 11:27 on Mon 7 Jan to 12:37 on Tue 8 Jan, so it holds sunrise only on Tue 8 Jan, at 06:34. No text giving Amavasya’s time was found; sunrise is Tithika’s convention.

Amavasya: every date in Diffa

The Moon gains on the Sun about 12° a day. Each 12° of lead is one tithi: 348°–360° is the 30th, Krishna Amavasya. A day takes the tithi in force at its sunrise, 06:34 here. Chaturdashi ended at 11:27 Mon, before it. Amavasya ends at 12:37, when the lead reaches 360°. The lead passed 180° at the full moon of 24 Dec, so the Moon is waning: Krishna paksha.

The night of Mon 7 Jan ran from sunset 17:57 Mon to sunrise 06:34, 12 h 37 m. Cut into 15 muhurtas of 50 m, its 14th is Brahma Muhurta, the one before the last.

Daylight here, 06:34 to 17:57, splits into 8 choghadiyas of 1 h 25 m. Their names follow a fixed order that starts from the weekday, and each name is counted good, neutral or bad.

The night here, 17:57 to 06:34 Wed, splits into 8 choghadiyas of 1 h 34 m. Their names follow a fixed order that starts from the weekday, and each name is counted good, neutral or bad.

The fixed stars divide the Moon's path into 27 nakshatras of 13°20′, each in 4 padas of 3°20′. Purva Ashadha spans 253°20′–266°40′; the Moon entered its pada 3 at 260°. It leaves at 18:29, for Uttara Ashadha.

Add the Sun's and the Moon's places among the stars: 263.3° + 260.4° = 523.7°, one full turn and 163.7°. Past the turn, cut into 27 parts of 13°20′, it gives the yoga: 160°00′–173°20′ is the 13th, Vyaghata. It ends at 23:28, then Harshana.

A karana is half a tithi: 6° of the Moon's lead, so the first half of Amavasya is Chatushpada and the second Nagava. Chatushpada ended at 00:05, when the lead reached 354°; Nagava runs until 12:37.

A Hindu day runs from one sunrise to the next, not midnight to midnight. This one runs 06:34 to 06:34 Wed, so the hours after midnight still belong to Mangalawara.

An amanta month runs from new moon to new moon and takes its name from the rashi the Sun is in at the new moon that begins it: Vrishchika gives Margashirsha. The Sun enters Dhanu on 16 Dec, inside the month. The next new moon, 8 Jan, finds it in Dhanu and begins Pausha.

A purnimanta month runs from full moon to full moon, so its waning half comes first. It shares its name with the amanta month that its second half falls in: the new moon of 8 Jan, with the Sun in Dhanu, begins Pausha. Until then this Krishna paksha reads Pausha here, and Margashirsha in the amanta count.

A samvat year begins with Chaitra, the month whose new moon finds the Sun in Meena: 19 Mar 2007, 03:42 Mon. Since then the Sun has moved 289.1° round the stars. Vikram Samvat numbers that year 2064; Shaka Samvat numbers it 1929.