Gochar 1994: planet transit calendar · School of Vedic Sciences, FORE

The grahas on 1 January 1994

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

Gochar calendar for 1994

Times in Adelaide (Australia/Adelaide, ACDT/ACST). 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 1994

10 Jan5:20 pm
Budha enters Makara
14 Jan2:47 pm
Surya enters Makara
15 Jan4:02 am
Shukra enters Makara
20 Jan1:48 pm
Mangala enters Makara
25 Jan6:57 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
28 Jan3:34 pm
Budha enters Kumbha

February 1994

5 Feb7:08 am
Shani becomes combust (asta) until 11 Mar^†
8 Feb1:18 am
Shukra enters Kumbha
11 Feb6:59 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 13°49′ Kumbha
13 Feb3:50 am
Surya enters Kumbha
14 Feb8:46 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 26 Feb^†
26 Feb4:43 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
27 Feb11:25 pm
Mangala enters Kumbha
27 Feb11:39 pm
Shukra rises again (asta ends)^†

March 1994

1 Mar12:02 am
Guru turns retrograde at 20°53′ Tula
1 Mar4:24 am
Budha enters Makara (moving backward)
4 Mar12:59 am
Shukra enters Meena
5 Mar4:19 pm
Budha turns direct at 28°51′ Makara
9 Mar1:33 pm
Mangala rises again (asta ends)^†
10 Mar12:02 pm
Budha enters Kumbha
11 Mar3:33 am
Shani rises again (asta ends)^†
15 Mar12:46 am
Surya enters Meena
28 Mar3:46 am
Shukra enters Mesha

April 1994

6 Apr5:10 am
Budha enters Meena
7 Apr3:44 am
Mangala enters Meena
14 Apr8:19 am
Surya enters Mesha
17 Apr7:59 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 13 May^†
21 Apr1:26 pm
Shukra enters Vrishabha
23 Apr2:24 am
Budha enters Mesha

May 1994

7 May7:10 am
Budha enters Vrishabha
13 May4:35 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
15 May5:12 am
Surya enters Vrishabha
16 May2:03 am
Mangala enters Mesha
16 May6:41 am
Shukra enters Mithuna
19 May2:16 pm
Rahu enters Tula (moving backward)
19 May2:16 pm
Ketu enters Mesha (moving backward)
23 May10:33 pm
Budha enters Mithuna

June 1994

10 Jun10:03 am
Shukra enters Karka
13 Jun3:17 am
Budha turns retrograde at 14°38′ Mithuna
15 Jun11:47 am
Surya enters Mithuna
17 Jun12:32 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 4 Jul^†
23 Jun12:53 pm
Shani turns retrograde at 18°38′ Kumbha
25 Jun3:11 pm
Mangala enters Vrishabha

July 1994

2 Jul1:21 pm
Guru turns direct at 10°59′ Tula
4 Jul8:01 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
6 Jul4:51 am
Shukra enters Simha
7 Jul5:13 am
Budha turns direct at 5°38′ Mithuna
16 Jul10:38 pm
Surya enters Karka
31 Jul6:42 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 28 Aug^†
31 Jul10:43 am
Budha enters Karka

August 1994

2 Aug3:49 am
Shukra enters Kanya
7 Aug7:00 pm
Mangala enters Mithuna
15 Aug6:28 am
Budha enters Simha
17 Aug7:02 am
Surya enters Simha
28 Aug6:10 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
31 Aug5:14 pm
Budha enters Kanya

September 1994

1 Sep12:17 am
Shukra enters Tula
17 Sep6:57 am
Surya enters Kanya
21 Sep9:09 pm
Budha enters Tula
24 Sep6:58 am
Mangala enters Karka

October 1994

9 Oct4:13 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 12°42′ Tula
13 Oct3:09 pm
Shukra turns retrograde at 24°14′ Tula
15 Oct9:48 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 27 Oct^†
17 Oct6:53 pm
Surya enters Tula
24 Oct9:58 pm
Budha enters Kanya (moving backward)
27 Oct4:07 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
29 Oct7:56 am
Shukra becomes combust (asta) until 8 Nov^†
30 Oct2:35 pm
Budha turns direct at 27°02′ Kanya

November 1994

4 Nov5:47 am
Guru becomes combust (asta) until 2 Dec^†
5 Nov1:50 pm
Budha enters Tula
8 Nov10:01 am
Shukra rises again (asta ends)^†
9 Nov7:37 pm
Shani turns direct at 11°54′ Kumbha
11 Nov4:30 pm
Guru enters Vrishchika
16 Nov7:39 pm
Surya enters Vrishchika
19 Nov9:28 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 7 Jan^†
23 Nov12:00 am
Mangala enters Simha
24 Nov3:28 am
Shukra turns direct at 8°42′ Tula
26 Nov4:18 pm
Budha enters Vrishchika

December 1994

2 Dec4:27 am
Guru rises again (asta ends)^†
15 Dec6:29 pm
Budha enters Dhanu
16 Dec10:15 am
Surya 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 1994: when each graha changes sign