Panchang in Diffa, Niger Thu 19 Oct 2017

Lakshmi Puja is done in pradosha, the 3 muhurtas after sunset. Amavasya runs from 19:43 on Wed 18 Oct to 20:12 on Thu 19 Oct, touching pradosha on both evenings. The Nirnayasindhu takes the evening it holds more of: Thu 19 Oct. Every reading takes that day.

Lakshmi Puja muhurat: pradosha, 17:48–20:14. Within it Vrishabha, a fixed (sthira) lagna, rises in the east from 19:24 to 20:14.

Diwali: every date in Diffa

Amavasya follows the tithi at sunrise. Amavasya runs from 19:43 on Wed 18 Oct to 20:12 on Thu 19 Oct, so it holds sunrise only on Thu 19 Oct, at 06:00. 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, 06:00 here. Chaturdashi ended at 19:43 Wed, before it. Amavasya ends at 20:12, when the lead reaches 360°. The lead passed 180° at the full moon of 5 Oct, so the Moon is waning: Krishna paksha.

The night of Wed 18 Oct ran from sunset 17:48 Wed to sunrise 06:00, 12 h 12 m. Cut into 15 muhurtas of 48 m, its 14th is Brahma Muhurta, the one before the last.

Daylight here, 06:00 to 17:48, splits into 8 choghadiyas of 1 h 28 m. Their names follow a fixed order that starts from the weekday, and each name is counted good, neutral or bad.

The night here, 17:48 to 06:00 Fri, splits into 8 choghadiyas of 1 h 31 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′. Chitra spans 173°20′–186°40′; the Moon entered its pada 1 at 173°20′. It leaves at 04:08 Fri, for Swati.

Add the Sun's and the Moon's places among the stars: 181.9° + 175° = 356.9°. The sum, cut into 27 parts of 13°20′, gives the yoga: 346°40′–360°00′ is the 27th, Vaidhriti. It ends at 11:28, then Vishkambha.

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 runs until 07:54, when the lead reaches 354°; Nagava until 20:12.

A Hindu day runs from one sunrise to the next, not midnight to midnight. This one runs 06:00 to 06:00 Fri, so the hours after midnight still belong to Guruwara.

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: Kanya gives Ashwina. The Sun enters Tula on 17 Oct, inside the month. The next new moon, 19 Oct, finds it in Tula and begins Kartika.

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 19 Oct, with the Sun in Tula, begins Kartika. Until then this Krishna paksha reads Kartika here, and Ashwina in the amanta count.

A samvat year begins with Chaitra, the month whose new moon finds the Sun in Meena: 28 Mar 2017, 03:57 Tue. Since then the Sun has moved 198.4° round the stars. Vikram Samvat numbers that year 2074; Shaka Samvat numbers it 1939.