Gochar 1979: planet transit calendar · School of Vedic Sciences, FORE

The grahas on 1 January 1979

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

Gochar calendar for 1979

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 1979

4 Jan1:37 pm
Budha enters Dhanu
12 Jan4:12 pm
Mangala enters Makara
14 Jan1:40 pm
Surya enters Makara
17 Jan11:38 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 26 Feb^†
24 Jan6:10 pm
Budha enters Makara
30 Jan5:21 pm
Shukra enters Dhanu

February 1979

11 Feb12:59 pm
Budha enters Kumbha
13 Feb2:39 am
Surya enters Kumbha
19 Feb10:07 pm
Mangala enters Kumbha
26 Feb9:45 am
Shukra enters Makara
26 Feb3:45 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
28 Feb12:25 am
Budha enters Meena

March 1979

14 Mar11:33 pm
Surya enters Meena
15 Mar6:44 am
Budha turns retrograde at 14°58′ Meena
17 Mar2:01 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 31 Mar^†
23 Mar10:59 pm
Shukra enters Kumbha
26 Mar6:42 am
Guru turns direct at 5°26′ Karka
30 Mar12:45 am
Mangala enters Meena
31 Mar11:56 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†

April 1979

7 Apr10:51 am
Budha turns direct at 2°10′ Meena
9 Apr1:35 am
Mangala rises again (asta ends)^†
14 Apr8:06 am
Surya enters Mesha
18 Apr1:08 am
Shukra enters Meena

May 1979

7 May5:12 am
Budha enters Mesha
7 May9:29 pm
Mangala enters Mesha
9 May8:54 pm
Shani turns direct at 13°31′ Simha
12 May10:16 pm
Shukra enters Mesha
15 May5:02 am
Surya enters Vrishabha
17 May7:28 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 11 Jun^†
23 May12:41 pm
Budha enters Vrishabha

June 1979

6 Jun9:06 am
Budha enters Mithuna
6 Jun4:34 pm
Shukra enters Vrishabha
11 Jun7:20 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
15 Jun11:41 am
Surya enters Mithuna
17 Jun8:26 am
Mangala enters Vrishabha
22 Jun11:06 pm
Budha enters Karka

July 1979

1 Jul8:06 am
Shukra enters Mithuna
16 Jul10:35 pm
Surya enters Karka
18 Jul4:11 am
Budha turns retrograde at 20°53′ Karka
20 Jul7:37 am
Shukra becomes combust (asta) until 1 Oct^†
24 Jul1:16 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 8 Aug^†
25 Jul8:05 pm
Shukra enters Karka
29 Jul5:27 pm
Guru becomes combust (asta) until 28 Aug^†
30 Jul4:49 am
Mangala enters Mithuna

August 1979

8 Aug8:45 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
11 Aug7:02 am
Budha turns direct at 9°35′ Karka
17 Aug6:58 am
Surya enters Simha
19 Aug4:04 am
Shukra enters Simha
24 Aug12:11 am
Shani becomes combust (asta) until 28 Sep^†
28 Aug9:20 am
Guru rises again (asta ends)^†
29 Aug11:04 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 2 Oct^†
29 Aug6:57 pm
Guru enters Simha
30 Aug5:11 pm
Budha enters Simha

September 1979

12 Sep8:42 am
Shukra enters Kanya
14 Sep12:46 pm
Mangala enters Karka
15 Sep11:11 am
Budha enters Kanya
17 Sep6:52 am
Surya enters Kanya
28 Sep9:35 am
Shani rises again (asta ends)^†

October 1979

1 Oct10:15 pm
Shukra rises again (asta ends)^†
2 Oct10:52 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
3 Oct4:25 am
Budha enters Tula
6 Oct11:22 am
Shukra enters Tula
17 Oct6:48 pm
Surya enters Tula
24 Oct3:09 pm
Budha enters Vrishchika
30 Oct1:25 pm
Shukra enters Vrishchika

November 1979

4 Nov12:53 am
Shani enters Kanya
6 Nov3:21 pm
Mangala enters Simha
9 Nov7:24 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 12°14′ Vrishchika
14 Nov10:16 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 26 Nov^†
16 Nov6:34 pm
Surya enters Vrishchika
23 Nov6:43 am
Budha enters Tula (moving backward)
23 Nov3:48 pm
Shukra enters Dhanu
26 Nov1:22 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
29 Nov6:11 pm
Budha turns direct at 26°05′ Tula

December 1979

7 Dec2:00 am
Budha enters Vrishchika
16 Dec9:12 am
Surya enters Dhanu
17 Dec7:32 pm
Shukra enters Makara
26 Dec8:11 pm
Guru turns retrograde at 16°40′ Simha
27 Dec4:44 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 9 Feb^†
29 Dec8:13 am
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 1979: when each graha changes sign