Gochar 1973: planet transit calendar · School of Vedic Sciences, FORE

The grahas on 1 January 1973

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

Gochar calendar for 1973

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 1973

5 Jan2:04 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 16 Feb^†
6 Jan7:31 pm
Shukra enters Dhanu
14 Jan12:30 am
Surya enters Makara
19 Jan9:26 pm
Budha enters Makara
24 Jan3:13 pm
Guru rises again (asta ends)^†
25 Jan11:55 am
Guru enters Makara
30 Jan7:06 pm
Shukra enters Makara

February 1973

3 Feb2:10 am
Mangala enters Dhanu
6 Feb10:15 am
Budha enters Kumbha
12 Feb1:27 pm
Surya enters Kumbha
13 Feb6:48 pm
Shani turns direct at 20°10′ Vrishabha
16 Feb10:35 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
23 Feb6:55 pm
Shukra enters Kumbha
24 Feb12:02 pm
Budha enters Meena

March 1973

1 Mar5:08 am
Shukra becomes combust (asta) until 18 May^†
4 Mar6:27 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 5°07′ Meena
7 Mar2:52 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 20 Mar^†
13 Mar4:46 pm
Budha enters Kumbha (moving backward)
14 Mar10:21 am
Surya enters Meena
17 Mar9:29 pm
Mangala enters Makara
19 Mar8:14 pm
Shukra enters Meena
20 Mar11:30 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
27 Mar1:49 pm
Budha turns direct at 21°32′ Kumbha

April 1973

11 Apr9:06 am
Budha enters Meena
13 Apr12:07 am
Shukra enters Mesha
13 Apr6:55 pm
Surya enters Mesha
29 Apr4:19 am
Mangala enters Kumbha

May 1973

2 May5:28 pm
Budha enters Mesha
7 May7:06 am
Shukra enters Vrishabha
7 May10:34 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 1 Jun^†
14 May3:54 pm
Surya enters Vrishabha
17 May11:07 pm
Budha enters Vrishabha
18 May4:14 am
Shukra rises again (asta ends)^†
28 May11:35 am
Shani becomes combust (asta) until 3 Jul^†
31 May3:22 am
Guru turns retrograde at 18°39′ Makara
31 May5:09 pm
Shukra enters Mithuna

June 1973

1 Jun12:14 am
Budha enters Mithuna
1 Jun4:20 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
10 Jun5:44 pm
Shani enters Mithuna
11 Jun7:23 am
Mangala enters Meena
14 Jun10:35 pm
Surya enters Mithuna
20 Jun6:31 am
Budha enters Karka
25 Jun6:04 am
Shukra enters Karka

July 1973

3 Jul7:03 pm
Shani rises again (asta ends)^†
6 Jul10:29 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 9°52′ Karka
12 Jul6:49 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 28 Jul^†
16 Jul9:30 am
Surya enters Karka
19 Jul10:25 pm
Shukra enters Simha
27 Jul12:57 pm
Budha enters Mithuna (moving backward)
28 Jul3:12 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
30 Jul6:11 am
Mangala enters Mesha
31 Jul3:17 am
Budha turns direct at 29°23′ Mithuna

August 1973

3 Aug2:12 pm
Budha enters Karka
13 Aug7:55 pm
Shukra enters Kanya
16 Aug5:55 pm
Surya enters Simha
19 Aug6:44 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 20 Sep^†
25 Aug1:59 pm
Budha enters Simha

September 1973

8 Sep1:33 am
Shukra enters Tula
10 Sep4:58 am
Budha enters Kanya
16 Sep5:51 pm
Surya enters Kanya
20 Sep4:45 am
Mangala turns retrograde at 15°47′ Mesha
20 Sep5:51 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
28 Sep1:43 pm
Budha enters Tula
28 Sep7:12 pm
Guru turns direct at 8°48′ Makara

October 1973

3 Oct8:31 pm
Shukra enters Vrishchika
17 Oct5:47 am
Surya enters Tula
17 Oct10:50 am
Shani turns retrograde at 11°16′ Mithuna
23 Oct6:05 am
Budha enters Vrishchika
30 Oct3:59 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 3°07′ Vrishchika
30 Oct6:11 pm
Shukra enters Dhanu

November 1973

5 Nov3:13 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 16 Nov^†
6 Nov1:31 am
Budha enters Tula (moving backward)
16 Nov5:33 am
Surya enters Vrishchika
16 Nov9:52 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
19 Nov7:44 pm
Budha turns direct at 17°04′ Tula
26 Nov5:39 am
Mangala turns direct at 1°49′ Mesha
30 Nov2:05 am
Shukra enters Makara

December 1973

4 Dec12:14 pm
Budha enters Vrishchika
14 Dec8:32 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 30 Jan^†
15 Dec8:09 pm
Surya enters Dhanu
24 Dec4:17 pm
Budha enters Dhanu

† 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 1973: when each graha changes sign