Gochar 1974: planet transit calendar · School of Vedic Sciences, FORE

The grahas on 1 January 1974

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

Gochar calendar for 1974

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 1974

3 Jan11:35 am
Shukra turns retrograde at 17°53′ Makara
12 Jan11:52 am
Budha enters Makara
14 Jan6:51 am
Surya enters Makara
19 Jan4:12 am
Shukra becomes combust (asta) until 29 Jan^†
29 Jan1:46 am
Shukra rises again (asta ends)^†
30 Jan3:30 am
Budha enters Kumbha
30 Jan8:36 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
30 Jan4:15 pm
Guru becomes combust (asta) until 28 Feb^†

February 1974

9 Feb9:34 am
Guru enters Kumbha
12 Feb7:48 pm
Surya enters Kumbha
13 Feb12:59 pm
Shukra turns direct at 2°19′ Makara
15 Feb3:26 pm
Mangala enters Vrishabha
16 Feb1:14 am
Budha turns retrograde at 18°21′ Kumbha
18 Feb1:38 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 3 Mar^†
28 Feb3:12 am
Shani turns direct at 4°17′ Mithuna
28 Feb4:52 am
Guru rises again (asta ends)^†

March 1974

3 Mar2:21 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
10 Mar3:46 am
Budha turns direct at 3°39′ Kumbha
14 Mar4:40 pm
Surya enters Meena
25 Mar7:56 pm
Rahu enters Vrishchika (moving backward)
25 Mar7:56 pm
Ketu enters Vrishabha (moving backward)
31 Mar3:50 am
Shukra enters Kumbha

April 1974

7 Apr3:40 pm
Budha enters Meena
9 Apr2:12 pm
Mangala enters Mithuna
14 Apr1:10 am
Surya enters Mesha
21 Apr3:59 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 17 May^†
25 Apr2:26 am
Budha enters Mesha
29 Apr3:58 am
Shukra enters Meena

May 1974

9 May9:19 am
Budha enters Vrishabha
14 May10:03 pm
Surya enters Vrishabha
17 May5:02 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
25 May1:08 am
Budha enters Mithuna
25 May9:06 pm
Shukra enters Mesha
29 May2:14 pm
Mangala enters Karka

June 1974

12 Jun1:25 pm
Shani becomes combust (asta) until 18 Jul^†
15 Jun4:40 am
Surya enters Mithuna
18 Jun4:06 am
Budha turns retrograde at 20°09′ Mithuna
20 Jun4:42 pm
Shukra enters Vrishabha
22 Jun9:15 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 9 Jul^†

July 1974

7 Jul9:25 pm
Guru turns retrograde at 24°22′ Kumbha
9 Jul12:51 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
12 Jul7:26 am
Budha turns direct at 10°54′ Mithuna
15 Jul11:50 pm
Shukra enters Mithuna
16 Jul3:32 pm
Surya enters Karka
17 Jul9:27 am
Mangala enters Simha
18 Jul10:25 pm
Shani rises again (asta ends)^†

August 1974

2 Aug4:08 am
Budha enters Karka
4 Aug7:00 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 2 Sep^†
9 Aug9:04 pm
Shukra enters Karka
16 Aug11:55 pm
Surya enters Simha
17 Aug8:07 am
Budha enters Simha
23 Aug5:32 pm
Mangala becomes combust (asta) until 6 Dec^†

September 1974

2 Sep9:54 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
2 Sep12:17 pm
Budha enters Kanya
2 Sep10:19 pm
Mangala enters Kanya
3 Sep9:27 am
Shukra enters Simha
16 Sep11:50 pm
Surya enters Kanya
22 Sep6:46 pm
Budha enters Tula
27 Sep2:42 pm
Shukra enters Kanya
29 Sep2:00 am
Shukra becomes combust (asta) until 17 Dec^†

October 1974

14 Oct1:17 am
Budha turns retrograde at 17°08′ Tula
17 Oct11:48 am
Surya enters Tula
18 Oct7:48 pm
Mangala enters Tula
20 Oct3:05 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 31 Oct^†
21 Oct3:12 pm
Shukra enters Tula
31 Oct6:28 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
31 Oct7:56 pm
Shani turns retrograde at 25°25′ Mithuna

November 1974

3 Nov5:58 pm
Guru turns direct at 14°29′ Kumbha
3 Nov6:21 pm
Budha turns direct at 1°22′ Tula
14 Nov1:16 pm
Shukra enters Vrishchika
16 Nov11:37 am
Surya enters Vrishchika
24 Nov12:01 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 12 Jan^†
28 Nov7:43 am
Budha enters Vrishchika

December 1974

1 Dec8:36 pm
Mangala enters Vrishchika
6 Dec11:23 am
Mangala rises again (asta ends)^†
8 Dec10:29 am
Shukra enters Dhanu
16 Dec2:17 am
Surya enters Dhanu
17 Dec12:04 pm
Budha enters Dhanu
17 Dec4:22 pm
Shukra 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 1974: when each graha changes sign