True Nodes & Apsides — Every Planet, Not Just the Moon

Rahu and Ketu — the Moon's lunar nodes — have always been core to this API. But nodes and apsides exist for every planet, not just the Moon: the points where each planet's orbit crosses the ecliptic, and its closest/farthest points from the Sun. Used in advanced Western and heliocentric astrology, and now available for Mercury through Pluto.

What's returned

For each planet: the ascending and descending node (where the orbit crosses the ecliptic, always exactly 180° apart), and perihelion/aphelion (closest and farthest points from the Sun, also 180° apart). Mean positions are used for Mercury through Neptune; Swiss Ephemeris automatically switches to osculating positions for Pluto, per its own documented convention.

GET /api/v1/horoscope/nodes-apsides?dob=01/10/1977&tob=11:40&lat=11&lon=77&tz=5.5&api_key=...

{
  "status": 200,
  "response": {
    "planets": [
      {
        "planet": "Mercury",
        "ascending_node": { "global_degree": 24.52, "zodiac": "Aries" },
        "descending_node": { "global_degree": 204.52, "zodiac": "Libra" },
        "perihelion": { "global_degree": 53.38, "zodiac": "Taurus" },
        "aphelion": { "global_degree": 233.38, "zodiac": "Scorpio" }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Verified against published orbital data

Before shipping, Mercury's ascending node was cross-checked against real published orbital-element data at the J2000.0 epoch (48.331°, sourced from two independent references) and confirmed to match to within 0.004°. That check caught a real issue during development — the raw calculation defaults to a geocentric frame unless the heliocentric flag is explicitly set, and nodes/apsides are conventionally heliocentric orbital elements. Fixed and re-verified before this endpoint went live.

Who this is for

Astrologers working in the Western/heliocentric tradition who use planetary nodes beyond the Moon's — a real, if specialized, technique with no standard endpoint on most Vedic-first astrology APIs. Available on Starter plan and above.