Panchang in Diffa, Niger Tue 3 May 2011

Amavasya follows the tithi at sunrise. Amavasya runs from 05:54 on Mon 2 May to 07:50 on Tue 3 May, so it holds sunrise only on Tue 3 May, at 05:47. 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, 05:47 here. Chaturdashi ended at 05:54 Mon, before it. Amavasya ends at 07:50, when the lead reaches 360°. The lead passed 180° at the full moon of 18 Apr, so the Moon is waning: Krishna paksha.

The night of Mon 2 May ran from sunset 18:25 Mon to sunrise 05:47, 11 h 22 m. Cut into 15 muhurtas of 45 m, its 14th is Brahma Muhurta, the one before the last.

Daylight here, 05:47 to 18:25, 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 night here, 18:25 to 05:47 Wed, 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 fixed stars divide the Moon's path into 27 nakshatras of 13°20′, each in 4 padas of 3°20′. Bharani spans 13°20′–26°40′; the Moon entered its pada 2 at 16°40′. It leaves at 23:56, for Krittika.

Add the Sun's and the Moon's places among the stars: 18.4° + 17.5° = 35.9°. The sum, cut into 27 parts of 13°20′, gives the yoga: 26°40′–40°00′ is the 3rd, Ayushmana. It ends at 13:21, then Saubhagya.

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 18:54 Mon, when the lead reached 354°; Nagava runs until 07:50.

A Hindu day runs from one sunrise to the next, not midnight to midnight. This one runs 05:47 to 05:47 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: Meena gives Chaitra. The Sun enters Mesha on 14 Apr, inside the month. The next new moon, 3 May, finds it in Mesha and begins Vaishakha.

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 3 May, with the Sun in Mesha, begins Vaishakha. Until then this Krishna paksha reads Vaishakha here, and Chaitra in the amanta count.

A samvat year begins with Chaitra, the month whose new moon finds the Sun in Meena: 3 Apr 2011, 15:32 Sun. Since then the Sun has moved 28.9° round the stars. Vikram Samvat numbers that year 2068; Shaka Samvat numbers it 1933.