Gochar 1986: planet transit calendar · School of Vedic Sciences, FORE

The grahas on 1 January 1986

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

Gochar calendar for 1986

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 1986

1 Jan6:25 pm
Budha enters Dhanu
8 Jan3:32 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 19 Feb^†
14 Jan8:48 am
Surya enters Makara
15 Jan10:02 am
Shukra enters Makara
21 Jan8:48 am
Budha enters Makara
22 Jan8:14 pm
Mangala enters Vrishchika
25 Jan6:50 am
Guru enters Kumbha

February 1986

4 Feb9:43 am
Guru becomes combust (asta) until 5 Mar^†
7 Feb10:50 pm
Budha enters Kumbha
8 Feb7:17 am
Shukra enters Kumbha
12 Feb9:46 pm
Surya enters Kumbha
19 Feb7:33 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
25 Feb8:39 am
Budha enters Meena

March 1986

2 Mar7:03 am
Shukra rises again (asta ends)^†
4 Mar6:55 am
Shukra enters Meena
5 Mar12:23 am
Guru rises again (asta ends)^†
7 Mar4:25 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 7°39′ Meena
10 Mar12:27 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 23 Mar^†
14 Mar6:39 pm
Surya enters Meena
16 Mar5:18 am
Mangala enters Dhanu
19 Mar10:57 am
Budha enters Kumbha (moving backward)
19 Mar2:23 pm
Shani turns retrograde at 16°02′ Vrishchika
23 Mar12:25 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
28 Mar10:37 am
Shukra enters Mesha
30 Mar2:12 pm
Budha turns direct at 24°16′ Kumbha

April 1986

11 Apr1:10 pm
Budha enters Meena
14 Apr3:09 am
Surya enters Mesha
21 Apr8:04 pm
Shukra enters Vrishabha

May 1986

4 May3:39 am
Budha enters Mesha
10 May5:14 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 4 Jun^†
15 May12:02 am
Surya enters Vrishabha
16 May12:54 pm
Shukra enters Mithuna
19 May2:52 pm
Budha enters Vrishabha

June 1986

2 Jun1:52 pm
Budha enters Mithuna
4 Jun9:08 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
9 Jun4:50 am
Mangala turns retrograde at 29°27′ Dhanu
10 Jun3:29 pm
Shukra enters Karka
15 Jun6:39 am
Surya enters Mithuna
20 Jun9:57 pm
Budha enters Karka

July 1986

6 Jul8:47 am
Shukra enters Simha
10 Jul1:56 am
Budha turns retrograde at 12°46′ Karka
12 Jul10:13 pm
Guru turns retrograde at 29°11′ Kumbha
16 Jul1:45 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 31 Jul^†
16 Jul5:32 pm
Surya enters Karka
31 Jul6:49 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†

August 1986

2 Aug4:35 am
Shukra enters Kanya
3 Aug6:18 am
Budha turns direct at 2°04′ Karka
7 Aug10:53 am
Shani turns direct at 9°24′ Vrishchika
12 Aug1:19 pm
Mangala turns direct at 17°45′ Dhanu
17 Aug1:56 am
Surya enters Simha
18 Aug7:31 pm
Rahu enters Meena (moving backward)
18 Aug7:31 pm
Ketu enters Kanya (moving backward)
22 Aug11:49 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 23 Sep^†
27 Aug3:39 am
Budha enters Simha
31 Aug3:22 pm
Shukra enters Tula

September 1986

11 Sep6:23 pm
Budha enters Kanya
17 Sep1:52 am
Surya enters Kanya
23 Sep10:53 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
26 Sep10:22 pm
Mangala enters Makara
29 Sep10:36 pm
Budha enters Tula

October 1986

15 Oct10:01 pm
Shukra turns retrograde at 26°44′ Tula
17 Oct1:49 pm
Surya enters Tula
23 Oct8:21 am
Budha enters Vrishchika
31 Oct3:03 pm
Shukra becomes combust (asta) until 10 Nov^†

November 1986

2 Nov12:17 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 5°29′ Vrishchika
7 Nov9:18 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 19 Nov^†
8 Nov3:13 pm
Guru turns direct at 19°18′ Kumbha
10 Nov3:58 pm
Shukra rises again (asta ends)^†
10 Nov11:30 pm
Budha enters Tula (moving backward)
16 Nov1:38 pm
Surya enters Vrishchika
16 Nov8:41 pm
Mangala enters Kumbha
18 Nov2:48 am
Shani becomes combust (asta) until 21 Dec^†
19 Nov2:56 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
22 Nov2:32 pm
Budha turns direct at 19°25′ Tula
26 Nov8:17 am
Shukra turns direct at 11°13′ Tula

December 1986

5 Dec2:32 pm
Budha enters Vrishchika
16 Dec4:16 am
Surya enters Dhanu
18 Dec8:53 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 2 Feb^†
21 Dec1:57 pm
Shani rises again (asta ends)^†
26 Dec2:33 am
Budha enters Dhanu
30 Dec4:26 pm
Mangala enters Meena
31 Dec6:14 pm
Shukra enters Vrishchika

† 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 1986: when each graha changes sign