Gochar 1971: planet transit calendar · School of Vedic Sciences, FORE

The grahas on 1 January 1971

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

Gochar calendar for 1971

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 1971

3 Jan5:55 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
8 Jan10:06 am
Budha turns direct at 4°22′ Dhanu
12 Jan9:50 pm
Mangala enters Vrishchika
14 Jan12:16 pm
Surya enters Makara
17 Jan7:00 pm
Shani turns direct at 22°15′ Mesha
30 Jan7:14 pm
Shukra enters Dhanu

February 1971

3 Feb2:27 pm
Budha enters Makara
13 Feb1:14 am
Surya enters Kumbha
16 Feb8:19 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 21 Mar^†
17 Feb2:02 pm
Rahu enters Makara (moving backward)
17 Feb2:02 pm
Ketu enters Karka (moving backward)
22 Feb6:56 pm
Budha enters Kumbha
26 Feb3:59 pm
Shukra enters Makara

March 1971

1 Mar10:08 pm
Mangala enters Dhanu
11 Mar2:23 am
Budha enters Meena
14 Mar10:08 pm
Surya enters Meena
21 Mar10:16 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
23 Mar4:45 pm
Guru turns retrograde at 13°01′ Vrishchika
24 Mar7:10 am
Shukra enters Kumbha
27 Mar9:11 am
Budha enters Mesha

April 1971

9 Apr10:40 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 10°19′ Mesha
12 Apr6:24 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 27 Apr^†
14 Apr6:41 am
Surya enters Mesha
18 Apr10:26 am
Shukra enters Meena
21 Apr8:54 pm
Mangala enters Makara
27 Apr4:40 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
28 Apr9:05 am
Shani enters Vrishabha
29 Apr8:11 pm
Shani becomes combust (asta) until 4 Jun^†
30 Apr10:00 pm
Budha enters Meena (moving backward)

May 1971

3 May3:55 pm
Budha turns direct at 29°42′ Meena
6 May10:06 am
Budha enters Mesha
13 May8:16 am
Shukra enters Mesha
15 May3:37 am
Surya enters Vrishabha

June 1971

3 Jun8:27 pm
Budha enters Vrishabha
4 Jun6:04 pm
Shani rises again (asta ends)^†
7 Jun3:01 am
Shukra enters Vrishabha
9 Jun12:08 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 4 Jul^†
15 Jun10:17 am
Surya enters Mithuna
18 Jun10:17 pm
Budha enters Mithuna

July 1971

1 Jul6:51 pm
Shukra enters Mithuna
3 Jul2:57 am
Budha enters Karka
4 Jul12:45 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
11 Jul11:56 am
Mangala turns retrograde at 28°30′ Makara
16 Jul9:12 pm
Surya enters Karka
21 Jul12:28 pm
Budha enters Simha
22 Jul1:30 pm
Shukra becomes combust (asta) until 4 Oct^†
25 Jul12:56 am
Guru turns direct at 3°08′ Vrishchika
26 Jul7:00 am
Shukra enters Karka

August 1971

13 Aug12:42 am
Budha turns retrograde at 17°06′ Simha
17 Aug5:39 am
Surya enters Simha
19 Aug3:03 pm
Shukra enters Simha
20 Aug3:16 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 3 Sep^†

September 1971

3 Sep3:03 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
5 Sep11:32 am
Budha turns direct at 3°55′ Simha
9 Sep7:25 pm
Mangala turns direct at 18°26′ Makara
12 Sep7:39 pm
Shukra enters Kanya
17 Sep5:36 am
Surya enters Kanya
19 Sep7:17 am
Shani turns retrograde at 13°04′ Vrishabha
21 Sep12:14 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 31 Oct^†
27 Sep12:41 am
Budha enters Kanya

October 1971

4 Oct6:31 am
Shukra rises again (asta ends)^†
6 Oct10:10 pm
Shukra enters Tula
14 Oct12:08 am
Budha enters Tula
17 Oct5:32 pm
Surya enters Tula
24 Oct11:54 am
Mangala enters Kumbha
31 Oct12:00 am
Shukra enters Vrishchika
31 Oct2:46 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†

November 1971

2 Nov1:34 am
Budha enters Vrishchika
16 Nov5:16 pm
Surya enters Vrishchika
24 Nov2:04 am
Shukra enters Dhanu
24 Nov6:24 pm
Budha enters Dhanu
26 Nov10:49 am
Guru becomes combust (asta) until 24 Dec^†

December 1971

3 Dec8:02 am
Budha turns retrograde at 4°48′ Dhanu
7 Dec2:48 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 18 Dec^†
10 Dec3:48 pm
Budha enters Vrishchika (moving backward)
16 Dec7:49 am
Surya enters Dhanu
16 Dec4:56 pm
Mangala enters Meena
18 Dec5:25 am
Shukra enters Makara
18 Dec1:42 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
23 Dec2:17 am
Budha turns direct at 18°30′ Vrishchika
24 Dec7:02 am
Guru rises again (asta ends)^†

† 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 1971: when each graha changes sign