Astrology is an ancient science. The Hindus perfected it many thousands of years ago. The focus is quite different: some of the planets we think of (like Pluto and others) are missing. The Hindus calculate the Moon Sign. This is sometimes given more importance than the Western Sun sign.
. The argument is that wherever the Moon was during the moment of one's birth, this will have a more powerful influence on the native than the Sun, which is further away.
The reason for the difference is that Vedic uses the Sidereal year versus the Western tropical year. The Hindu system of astrology uses the concept of the fixed zodiac, and the Western system uses the concept of the moveable zodiac. The earth wobbles slightly in its orbit around the sun.
For more explanation on the difference between the Vedic horoscope versus the Western; see http://www.jyotisha.oojt.com/Difference.htm
Be prepared for some surprises! If you have always thought of yourself as a Pisces, now it appears you have an Aquarian Sun. This can come as a real shock.
In order to calculate your Vedic horoscope, you will need the following figures:
1) Date of birth. If you were born in January, fill in the box '01' and not just '1'. You'll need date, month and year.
2) Time of birth. Use military time. For 9:00 pm, add 12 hours so it becomes '21'. Also, if you were born 1:00, enter it as '01' and not just '1'. If you don't know the exact time, estimate or else you can use 12:00 noon.
3) Time zone: This has to do with the GMT or the Greenwich Meridian Time which runs through Greenwich England. I just looked up my birth city on the Yahoo search engine like this: "Portland GMT time", and I got the answer. It should look something like this: -8:00, or 7:00 GMT.
4) Longitude and latitude: Again, I'm lazy. I just went to the Yahoo search engine and keyed in "Portland latitude and latitude and got the answer. For Portland, it should look something like this:
Longitude: '45', '31' N
Latitude: '122', 40' W
Click 'reading'. Once you get your horoscope, don't be surprised if you now have a new Sun Sign. Your moon sign is now the one to look at for your character tendencies. There are lots of Hindu web sites which give horoscopes based on your moon sign.
For Vedic horoscope:
http://astro.vaisnava.dz/index.php
http://www.indianastrology.com
http://www.astrogyan.com
For interpreting your moon sign and to read your moon sign based horoscope:
http://www.indianastrology2000.com