Gochar 1969: planet transit calendar · School of Vedic Sciences, FORE

The grahas on 1 January 1969

Sidereal (Lahiri) sign, and from when to when. Open a graha for its whole year.

Gochar calendar for 1969

Times in IST. Each is the same instant everywhere on Earth. The Moon changes sign every two and a half days, so its list is on its own page.

Sign changeRetrograde / directAsta / rising

January 1969

14 Jan12:07 am
Surya enters Makara
20 Jan4:26 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 22°37′ Makara
20 Jan5:41 pm
Guru turns retrograde at 12°38′ Kanya
23 Jan2:55 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 4 Feb^†
26 Jan7:14 pm
Shukra enters Meena

February 1969

4 Feb5:00 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
10 Feb3:08 pm
Budha turns direct at 6°50′ Makara
11 Feb3:42 pm
Mangala enters Vrishchika
12 Feb1:06 pm
Surya enters Kumbha

March 1969

5 Mar1:12 am
Shukra enters Mesha
7 Mar2:37 pm
Shani enters Mesha
8 Mar7:58 am
Budha enters Kumbha
14 Mar10:02 am
Surya enters Meena
18 Mar5:17 pm
Shukra turns retrograde at 3°25′ Mesha
25 Mar6:21 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 22 Apr^†
27 Mar1:43 am
Budha enters Meena
31 Mar4:22 pm
Shukra enters Meena (moving backward)

April 1969

1 Apr12:23 pm
Shani becomes combust (asta) until 6 May^†
3 Apr8:40 pm
Shukra becomes combust (asta) until 13 Apr^†
11 Apr8:18 am
Budha enters Mesha
13 Apr6:36 pm
Surya enters Mesha
13 Apr9:11 pm
Shukra rises again (asta ends)^†
22 Apr4:42 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
26 Apr12:57 pm
Budha enters Vrishabha
27 Apr4:49 pm
Mangala turns retrograde at 23°20′ Vrishchika
30 Apr12:51 am
Shukra turns direct at 17°04′ Meena

May 1969

6 May6:56 pm
Shani rises again (asta ends)^†
14 May3:33 pm
Surya enters Vrishabha
18 May12:35 am
Budha turns retrograde at 18°35′ Vrishabha
21 May2:37 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 7 Jun^†
23 May2:07 pm
Guru turns direct at 2°41′ Kanya
29 May4:25 am
Shukra enters Mesha

June 1969

7 Jun2:16 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
10 Jun9:18 pm
Budha turns direct at 10°00′ Vrishabha
14 Jun10:11 pm
Surya enters Mithuna
30 Jun8:15 pm
Shukra enters Vrishabha

July 1969

4 Jul1:30 pm
Budha enters Mithuna
8 Jul11:40 am
Mangala turns direct at 8°16′ Vrishchika
10 Jul9:07 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 5 Aug^†
16 Jul9:03 am
Surya enters Karka
19 Jul10:39 pm
Budha enters Karka
28 Jul3:04 pm
Shukra enters Mithuna
31 Jul11:05 am
Rahu enters Kumbha (moving backward)
31 Jul11:05 am
Ketu enters Simha (moving backward)

August 1969

3 Aug6:17 pm
Budha enters Simha
5 Aug1:28 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
16 Aug5:24 pm
Surya enters Simha
21 Aug10:42 am
Shani turns retrograde at 15°31′ Mesha
22 Aug10:16 am
Budha enters Kanya
23 Aug6:14 pm
Shukra enters Karka

September 1969

10 Sep10:20 am
Mangala enters Dhanu
16 Sep5:15 pm
Surya enters Kanya
16 Sep6:10 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 21°26′ Kanya
17 Sep10:44 pm
Shukra enters Simha
23 Sep2:52 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 6 Oct^†
25 Sep7:31 pm
Guru becomes combust (asta) until 24 Oct^†

October 1969

6 Oct2:16 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
8 Oct3:23 pm
Budha turns direct at 6°25′ Kanya
12 Oct12:11 pm
Shukra enters Kanya
17 Oct5:05 am
Surya enters Tula
24 Oct7:16 am
Guru rises again (asta ends)^†
25 Oct8:49 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 12 Dec^†
26 Oct6:22 pm
Mangala enters Makara
28 Oct11:17 pm
Budha enters Tula

November 1969

5 Nov4:03 pm
Shukra enters Tula
12 Nov12:21 am
Guru enters Tula
16 Nov4:48 am
Surya enters Vrishchika
16 Nov7:54 am
Budha enters Vrishchika
29 Nov2:44 pm
Shukra enters Vrishchika

December 1969

5 Dec12:38 pm
Budha enters Dhanu
7 Dec12:10 am
Mangala enters Kumbha
12 Dec7:45 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
14 Dec7:28 am
Shukra becomes combust (asta) until 7 Mar^†
15 Dec7:23 pm
Surya enters Dhanu
23 Dec11:18 am
Shukra enters Dhanu
26 Dec2:39 am
Budha enters Makara

† Practice varies. Texts and almanacs give slightly different asta limits, and some almanacs use the true rather than the mean node for Rahu and Ketu, which can move the nodes’ sign changes by some weeks.

Understand

What gochar is

Gochar means the movement of the grahas: each moves on through the zodiac, and when it crosses from one rasi into the next, that is its sign change (sankramana). This page only says which graha is where, and when. In the classical method gochar is read by counting from a person’s natal Moon sign; to see today’s sky against your own chart, open the transits tool.

Retrograde (vakri) and direct (margi)

Seen from the Earth, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn now and then appear to move backward for a while. That is retrograde motion; the instant the graha stops and turns is a station, and moving forward again is turning direct. It is an effect of the Earth and the planet moving on their orbits at different speeds. The Sun and Moon are never retrograde; Rahu and Ketu (mean) always move backward.

Combustion (asta)

A graha very close to the Sun is lost in its glare; the texts call it asta (set), and its reappearance udaya (rising). The Surya Siddhanta gives a distance limit for each graha. The limits used here: Mangala 17°, Budha 14° (12° when retrograde), Guru 11°, Shukra 10° (8° when retrograde), Shani 15°. Almanacs leave out the asta periods of Guru and Shukra when choosing times for samskaras such as weddings.

Sidereal signs

Indian almanacs count the rasis against the stars (nirayana). Western (tropical) signs run about 24° ahead, so the dates printed there are about three weeks earlier than these. The ayanamsa used here is Lahiri.

How this is calculated

Each graha’s apparent geocentric position from NASA JPL’s DE421 ephemeris, less the Lahiri ayanamsa. The instants of crossing a rasi edge, of zero speed and of reaching the asta limit are found by bisection to under a second. Small differences in ayanamsa can move a slow graha’s time (Shani above all) by a few hours against other almanacs.

Gochar 1969: when each graha changes sign