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The Sun is in sidereal Leo from August 17, 2026 to September 17, 2026 in 2026 under the Lahiri ayanamsa. The sidereal window places the Sun physically near Regulus — Leo’s alpha star, historically called "the heart of the lion" — rather than in the tropical Leo that runs July 22 to August 22.
Tropical Leo begins July 22–23, when the Sun reaches 120° of the tropical ecliptic. Sidereal Leo begins when the Sun crosses the border of the Leo constellation — a region anchored by Regulus at 0° sidereal Leo (by traditional Vedic reckoning) and extending through Denebola. This 24.21° gap exists because Earth’s axis precesses at 50.3 arcseconds per year. The Lahiri ayanamsa — India’s official astronomical standard since 1955 — subtracts this accumulated drift from tropical positions. In the first century CE the two zodiacs overlapped; the tropical Leo opening and the Leo constellation matched. Today the constellation boundary lags 24 days behind the tropical sign boundary. Sidereal astrology tracks the actual sky; tropical astrology tracks the seasons.
Why sidereal differs from tropical →
Lahiri’s ayanamsa adds about 50.3 arcseconds annually, pushing the Leo entry date roughly 20 minutes later each decade. The Sun enters sidereal Leo around August 17 in 2026 and exits around September 17, a 31-day window. Variations between years stay under 2 hours. The ingress time matters most near the Leo–Cancer and Leo–Virgo boundaries: if your birth date is August 16–18 or September 16–18 in any year, check the table below for the exact UTC crossing. For all other Leo Suns, August 17 is a reliable baseline across decades.
| Year | Sun enters | Sun exits |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | August 17, 2023 | September 17, 2023 |
| 2024 | August 16, 2024 | September 16, 2024 |
| 2025 | August 16, 2025 | September 16, 2025 |
| 2026 | August 17, 2026 | September 17, 2026 |
| 2027 | August 17, 2027 | September 17, 2027 |
| 2028 | August 16, 2028 | September 16, 2028 |
| 2029 | August 16, 2029 | September 16, 2029 |
Enter your birth date to find which sidereal sign the Sun was in.
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