Gochar 1981: planet transit calendar · School of Vedic Sciences, FORE

The grahas on 1 January 1981

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

Gochar calendar for 1981

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 1981

6 Jan9:16 am
Shukra enters Dhanu
9 Jan1:00 am
Budha enters Makara
14 Jan1:55 am
Surya enters Makara
15 Jan3:31 pm
Mangala becomes combust (asta) until 15 Jun^†
18 Jan9:57 pm
Shani turns retrograde at 16°12′ Kanya
22 Jan1:05 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
25 Jan12:35 am
Guru turns retrograde at 16°48′ Kanya
27 Jan4:57 am
Budha enters Kumbha
30 Jan1:50 am
Mangala enters Kumbha
30 Jan8:41 am
Shukra enters Makara

February 1981

8 Feb6:00 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 11°20′ Kumbha
11 Feb8:37 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 23 Feb^†
12 Feb2:57 pm
Surya enters Kumbha
22 Feb12:04 pm
Budha enters Makara (moving backward)
23 Feb8:21 am
Shukra enters Kumbha
23 Feb2:09 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
26 Feb4:45 pm
Shukra becomes combust (asta) until 15 May^†

March 1981

2 Mar12:36 pm
Budha turns direct at 26°16′ Makara
9 Mar3:04 am
Mangala enters Meena
11 Mar1:24 pm
Budha enters Kumbha
14 Mar11:54 am
Surya enters Meena
19 Mar9:33 am
Shukra enters Meena

April 1981

4 Apr5:10 pm
Budha enters Meena
12 Apr1:21 pm
Shukra enters Mesha
13 Apr8:29 pm
Surya enters Mesha
14 Apr6:59 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 10 May^†
17 Apr12:49 am
Mangala enters Mesha
21 Apr8:02 am
Budha enters Mesha

May 1981

5 May12:23 pm
Budha enters Vrishabha
6 May8:20 pm
Shukra enters Vrishabha
10 May8:02 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
14 May5:26 pm
Surya enters Vrishabha
15 May8:48 pm
Shukra rises again (asta ends)^†
22 May9:43 pm
Budha enters Mithuna
27 May1:04 pm
Mangala enters Vrishabha
28 May12:14 am
Guru turns direct at 6°51′ Kanya
31 May6:27 am
Shukra enters Mithuna

June 1981

5 Jun8:14 am
Shani turns direct at 9°24′ Kanya
9 Jun5:04 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 11°37′ Mithuna
13 Jun10:17 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 30 Jun^†
15 Jun12:07 am
Surya enters Mithuna
15 Jun6:27 pm
Mangala rises again (asta ends)^†
24 Jun7:36 pm
Shukra enters Karka
30 Jun7:31 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†

July 1981

3 Jul6:28 pm
Budha turns direct at 2°44′ Mithuna
9 Jul4:24 am
Mangala enters Mithuna
16 Jul11:02 am
Surya enters Karka
19 Jul12:22 pm
Shukra enters Simha
28 Jul10:15 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 25 Aug^†
29 Jul6:43 pm
Budha enters Karka

August 1981

13 Aug10:33 am
Shukra enters Kanya
13 Aug11:44 am
Budha enters Simha
16 Aug7:26 pm
Surya enters Simha
23 Aug7:34 am
Mangala enters Karka
25 Aug2:00 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
30 Aug2:39 am
Budha enters Kanya

September 1981

7 Sep5:17 pm
Shukra enters Tula
16 Sep7:19 pm
Surya enters Kanya
18 Sep11:11 pm
Shani becomes combust (asta) until 23 Oct^†
20 Sep9:49 pm
Budha enters Tula
30 Sep3:34 am
Guru becomes combust (asta) until 28 Oct^†

October 1981

3 Oct2:13 pm
Shukra enters Vrishchika
6 Oct2:44 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 10°16′ Tula
10 Oct11:46 am
Mangala enters Simha
12 Oct10:22 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 24 Oct^†
17 Oct7:11 am
Surya enters Tula
19 Oct6:49 pm
Budha enters Kanya (moving backward)
23 Oct4:15 pm
Shani rises again (asta ends)^†
24 Oct6:23 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
27 Oct1:33 pm
Guru enters Tula
27 Oct2:40 pm
Budha turns direct at 24°40′ Kanya
28 Oct1:32 pm
Guru rises again (asta ends)^†
30 Oct4:08 pm
Shukra enters Dhanu

November 1981

4 Nov8:44 pm
Budha enters Tula
15 Nov10:18 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 4 Jan^†
16 Nov6:53 am
Surya enters Vrishchika
25 Nov1:05 am
Budha enters Vrishchika
30 Nov4:16 pm
Shukra enters Makara

December 1981

3 Dec4:04 am
Mangala enters Kanya
14 Dec2:38 am
Budha enters Dhanu
15 Dec9:29 pm
Surya enters Dhanu
24 Dec10:40 am
Rahu enters Mithuna (moving backward)
24 Dec10:40 am
Ketu enters Dhanu (moving backward)

† 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 1981: when each graha changes sign