---
title: "Calculate distinct mean and osculating lunar nodes"
method: POST
path: "/api/astro/lunar-nodes"
tags: ["Calculations"]
---

# Calculate distinct mean and osculating lunar nodes

`POST /api/astro/lunar-nodes`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://api.cosmicephemeris.com`
- URL: `https://api.cosmicephemeris.com/api/astro/lunar-nodes`
- Auth: one of:
  - HTTP bearer
  - API key in header `x-api-key`

Current mean and distinct geometric osculating lunar nodes at a known civil instant. No coordinates, user ephemeris, chart input or URLs. Civil dates 1800–2200; timezone conversion can cross the UTC year boundary. Tropical default; optional sidereal mean P03 ayanamsa subtraction, with true-model nutation retained. Existing chart/timeline node fields are unchanged. All admitted attempts use one standard quota unit, including free plans. No practitioner sign-off is claimed.

Each admitted request reserves one monthly usage unit before route validation or engine work; failed or timed-out admitted attempts are not refunded. Do not automatically retry.
Historical mode uses an explicit BCE/CE date object and UT1 conventions. Its response is the versioned historical envelope, not the modern UTC envelope. Read result for calculation fields and metadata for limits and uncertainty.

## Request body

- union
  - LunarNodesRequest: Supported mean and distinct geometric osculating lunar nodes at a known civil instant. No coordinates, user ephemeris, chart input or URLs. Civil dates 1800–2200; timezone conversion can cross the UTC year boundary. Tropical default; optional sidereal mean P03 ayanamsa subtraction, with true-model nutation retained. Existing chart/timeline node fields are unchanged.
    - `at` CivilTimeInput, required
      - `date` string, date, required: Valid Gregorian YYYY-MM-DD local civil date, inclusive 1800-01-01 through 2200-12-31. Calendar validity and timezone conversion are checked by the server.
      - `time` string, required: HH:MM or HH:MM:SS; no offset in this field. Use timezone to select the civil-time zone.
      - `timezone` string
    - `zodiac` 'tropical' | 'sidereal'
    - `ayanamsa` 'lahiri' | 'raman' | 'krishnamurti' | 'fagan_bradley' | 'yukteshwar' | 'sassanian' | 'true_chitra' | 'true_revati' | 'true_pushya' | 'galactic_center_0_sagittarius' | 'galactic_alignment_mardyks'
  - HistoricalLunarNodesRequest: Explicit historical mode, 1000 BCE (BC)–2500 CE (AD). No year zero, implicit calendar, UTC or IANA zone. Preserve tool-specific mathematical, geographic and search limits; calendar/time conventions and estimated Delta-T are not certified historical accuracy.
    - `at` HistoricalDateTime, required: Shared historical input contract; parsing alone does not enable a calculation route. Derived calculation records can include fractional seconds and are not this input type.
      - `date` HistoricalDate, required: Explicit civil date, 1000 BCE (BC)–2500 CE (AD); no year zero. Calendar validity is checked by the server. Available only on documented connected historical operations, with explicit UT1/fixed-offset conventions.
        - `year` integer, required
        - `era` 'BCE' | 'CE', required: Display BCE (BC) / CE (AD); API values remain BCE / CE. No year zero.
        - `month` integer, required
        - `day` integer, required
        - `calendar` 'proleptic_gregorian' | 'proleptic_julian', required: Explicit choice; applies the selected calendar rules throughout history without a regional adoption switch.
      - `time` string, required: Explicit HH:MM[:SS]; whole seconds only, no leap seconds. Normalized helper output includes seconds.
      - `timezone` string, required: Explicit UT1 or fixed offset UT1+/-HH:MM[:SS], within 14 hours. Local clock minus offset yields UT1, not UTC. No IANA timezone inference. Original offset spelling is preserved.
    - `zodiac` 'tropical' | 'sidereal'
    - `ayanamsa` 'lahiri' | 'raman' | 'krishnamurti' | 'fagan_bradley' | 'yukteshwar' | 'sassanian' | 'true_chitra' | 'true_revati' | 'true_pushya' | 'galactic_center_0_sagittarius' | 'galactic_alignment_mardyks'

## Response `200`

Successful calculation. Field nesting is specific to this route.

- union
  - LunarNodesResponse
    - `type` 'lunar_nodes', required
    - `status` 'current', required
    - `at` object, required
      - `date` string, date, required: Valid Gregorian YYYY-MM-DD local civil date, inclusive 1800-01-01 through 2200-12-31. Calendar validity and timezone conversion are checked by the server.
      - `time` string, required: HH:MM or HH:MM:SS; no offset in this field. Use timezone to select the civil-time zone.
      - `timezone` string, required
      - `utc` string, date-time, required: Normalized UTC timestamp; fractional seconds may be present.
    - `zodiac` 'tropical' | 'sidereal', required
    - `ayanamsa` 'lahiri' | 'raman' | 'krishnamurti' | 'fagan_bradley' | 'yukteshwar' | 'sassanian' | 'true_chitra' | 'true_revati' | 'true_pushya' | 'galactic_center_0_sagittarius' | 'galactic_alignment_mardyks', required
    - `mean` MeanLunarNodePair, required
      - `model` 'meeus-mean-node', required
      - `frame` 'mean-ecliptic-equinox-of-date', required
      - `north` LunarNodePosition, required: Four-decimal degrees are serialization resolution, not claimed physical accuracy. Longitude carries normalize before sign assignment.
        - `longitude` number, required
        - `sign` 'Aries' | 'Taurus' | 'Gemini' | 'Cancer' | 'Leo' | 'Virgo' | 'Libra' | 'Scorpio' | 'Sagittarius' | 'Capricorn' | 'Aquarius' | 'Pisces', required
        - `deg_in_sign` number, required
        - `tropical_longitude` number, required
      - `south` LunarNodePosition, required: Four-decimal degrees are serialization resolution, not claimed physical accuracy. Longitude carries normalize before sign assignment.
        - `longitude` number, required
        - `sign` 'Aries' | 'Taurus' | 'Gemini' | 'Cancer' | 'Leo' | 'Virgo' | 'Libra' | 'Scorpio' | 'Sagittarius' | 'Capricorn' | 'Aquarius' | 'Pisces', required
        - `deg_in_sign` number, required
        - `tropical_longitude` number, required
    - `true` TrueLunarNodePair, required
      - `model` 'de440-osculating-node', required
      - `frame` 'true-ecliptic-equinox-of-date', required
      - `north` LunarNodePosition, required: Four-decimal degrees are serialization resolution, not claimed physical accuracy. Longitude carries normalize before sign assignment.
        - `longitude` number, required
        - `sign` 'Aries' | 'Taurus' | 'Gemini' | 'Cancer' | 'Leo' | 'Virgo' | 'Libra' | 'Scorpio' | 'Sagittarius' | 'Capricorn' | 'Aquarius' | 'Pisces', required
        - `deg_in_sign` number, required
        - `tropical_longitude` number, required
      - `south` LunarNodePosition, required: Four-decimal degrees are serialization resolution, not claimed physical accuracy. Longitude carries normalize before sign assignment.
        - `longitude` number, required
        - `sign` 'Aries' | 'Taurus' | 'Gemini' | 'Cancer' | 'Leo' | 'Virgo' | 'Libra' | 'Scorpio' | 'Sagittarius' | 'Capricorn' | 'Aquarius' | 'Pisces', required
        - `deg_in_sign` number, required
        - `tropical_longitude` number, required
    - `metadata` LunarNodesMetadata, required
      - `ephemeris` 'JPL DE440', required
      - `mean_source` 'existing engine/app/nodes.py TT mean-node polynomial', required
      - `true_source` 'same-instant geometric Moon-minus-Earth position and inertial velocity', required
      - `true_geometry` 'ascending intersection of instantaneous orbital plane and date ecliptic', required
      - `corrections` 'no light time, aberration, observer location, or rotating-frame velocity term', required
      - `frame_policy` 'frame names identify tropical source axes before any sidereal subtraction', required
      - `sidereal_policy` 'existing mean IAU 2006/P03 ayanamsa subtraction; true-model nutation retained', required
      - `legacy_compatibility` 'chart true uses the same osculating model; chart mean/south and timeline Rahu/Ketu retain the mean model', required
      - `limitations` 'osculating true is an instantaneous model, not an eclipse/event prediction or universal true-node convention', required
      - `precision` 'four decimal degrees are output resolution, not an accuracy guarantee', required
  - HistoricalLunarNodesLunarNodesResponse
    - `schema` 'cosmicephemeris-historical-calculation-v1', required
    - `status` 'historical', required
    - `type` 'lunar-nodes', required
    - `input` HistoricalLunarNodesRequest, required: Explicit historical mode, 1000 BCE (BC)–2500 CE (AD). No year zero, implicit calendar, UTC or IANA zone. Preserve tool-specific mathematical, geographic and search limits; calendar/time conventions and estimated Delta-T are not certified historical accuracy.
      - `at` HistoricalDateTime, required: Shared historical input contract; parsing alone does not enable a calculation route. Derived calculation records can include fractional seconds and are not this input type.
        - `date` HistoricalDate, required: Explicit civil date, 1000 BCE (BC)–2500 CE (AD); no year zero. Calendar validity is checked by the server. Available only on documented connected historical operations, with explicit UT1/fixed-offset conventions.
          - `year` integer, required
          - `era` 'BCE' | 'CE', required: Display BCE (BC) / CE (AD); API values remain BCE / CE. No year zero.
          - `month` integer, required
          - `day` integer, required
          - `calendar` 'proleptic_gregorian' | 'proleptic_julian', required: Explicit choice; applies the selected calendar rules throughout history without a regional adoption switch.
        - `time` string, required: Explicit HH:MM[:SS]; whole seconds only, no leap seconds. Normalized helper output includes seconds.
        - `timezone` string, required: Explicit UT1 or fixed offset UT1+/-HH:MM[:SS], within 14 hours. Local clock minus offset yields UT1, not UTC. No IANA timezone inference. Original offset spelling is preserved.
      - `zodiac` 'tropical' | 'sidereal'
      - `ayanamsa` 'lahiri' | 'raman' | 'krishnamurti' | 'fagan_bradley' | 'yukteshwar' | 'sassanian' | 'true_chitra' | 'true_revati' | 'true_pushya' | 'galactic_center_0_sagittarius' | 'galactic_alignment_mardyks'
    - `result` object, required: Complete historical calculation adapter result. Times are explicit UT1 date records, never UTC strings; derived times may include fractional seconds and years outside the input range.
    - `metadata` object, required
      - `time_standard` 'UT1', required
      - `historical_accuracy_certified` unknown, required
      - `warnings` string[], required

## Other responses

- `400`: Invalid request, malformed JSON, out-of-range date/location, unknown model, invalid timezone or ambiguous/nonexistent clock-change time. Invalid attempts reaching quota reservation consume one unit.
- `401`: Missing, invalid, revoked API key or unavailable activated key owner. Dashboard cookies do not authenticate calculation routes.
- `403`: Origin not allowed by production CORS policy. Server-to-server requests can omit Origin.
- `404`: Wrong/case-variant/noncanonical or trailing-slash route; public paths have no version prefix.
- `413`: Request exceeds the body limit; gateway JSON is capped at 128 KiB. Edge failures may be HTML.
- `429`: Monthly quota exhausted, per-user two-request concurrency reached, or nginx rate/connection admission refused. Retry-After: 2 is sent for application per-user concurrency only, not a promise that monthly quota resets in two seconds.
- `500`: Bounded gateway/database/internal failure. An admitted attempt can still consume quota.
- `502`: Engine unavailable, unsuccessful internal server response or invalid upstream JSON. No engine internals are exposed.
- `503`: Four-request global calculation pool full (Retry-After: 2), maintenance or upstream service unavailable.
- `504`: Application engine timeout: 15 seconds normally; planetary events, house ingresses, aspect windows, event calendar, eclipse geometry, electional search, and event-rule search use 30 seconds; Nakshatra Timeline plus the explicitly enumerated readiness, robustness, location, uncertainty, and electional-audit family use 60 seconds. Timer includes response-body parsing; an admitted timeout consumes quota.

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/cosmicephemeris/apis/cosmic-ephemeris-calculation-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/cosmicephemeris/apis/cosmic-ephemeris-calculation-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/cosmicephemeris/apis/cosmic-ephemeris-calculation-api/revisions/f041e924cea3?raw)