Gochar 2000: planet transit calendar · School of Vedic Sciences, FORE

The grahas on 1 January 2000

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

Gochar calendar for 2000

Times in San Jose (America/Los Angeles, PST/PDT). 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 2000

11 Jan9:28 pm
Shani turns direct at 16°26′ Mesha
14 Jan9:28 am
Surya enters Makara
14 Jan9:41 pm
Budha enters Makara
19 Jan11:28 am
Shukra enters Dhanu

February 2000

1 Feb10:01 am
Budha enters Kumbha
3 Feb4:16 pm
Mangala enters Meena
4 Feb5:46 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
12 Feb9:08 pm
Shukra enters Makara
12 Feb10:28 pm
Surya enters Kumbha
21 Feb4:46 am
Budha turns retrograde at 23°19′ Kumbha
23 Feb3:52 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 7 Mar^†

March 2000

7 Mar10:04 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
8 Mar4:15 am
Shukra enters Kumbha
13 Mar7:22 pm
Surya enters Meena
14 Mar9:41 am
Mangala enters Mesha
14 Mar12:39 pm
Budha turns direct at 8°55′ Kumbha

April 2000

1 Apr11:10 am
Shukra enters Meena
8 Apr11:45 am
Budha enters Meena
13 Apr4:52 am
Surya enters Mesha
22 Apr5:29 pm
Shani becomes combust (asta) until 28 May^†
22 Apr9:12 pm
Guru becomes combust (asta) until 23 May^†
24 Apr7:22 pm
Mangala enters Vrishabha
25 Apr7:35 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 21 May^†
25 Apr8:06 pm
Shukra enters Mesha
26 Apr5:03 pm
Budha enters Mesha

May 2000

1 May2:16 am
Mangala becomes combust (asta) until 25 Aug^†
4 May7:17 pm
Shukra becomes combust (asta) until 17 Jul^†
11 May4:15 am
Budha enters Vrishabha
14 May1:45 am
Surya enters Vrishabha
20 May5:18 am
Shukra enters Vrishabha
21 May1:38 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
23 May12:20 am
Guru rises again (asta ends)^†
26 May2:45 am
Budha enters Mithuna
28 May12:08 pm
Shani rises again (asta ends)^†

June 2000

2 Jun6:35 am
Guru enters Vrishabha
6 Jun12:32 pm
Shani enters Vrishabha
7 Jun2:54 am
Mangala enters Mithuna
13 Jun3:16 pm
Shukra enters Mithuna
14 Jun8:22 am
Surya enters Mithuna
23 Jun1:31 am
Budha turns retrograde at 26°06′ Mithuna
28 Jun3:22 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 14 Jul^†

July 2000

8 Jul1:10 am
Shukra enters Karka
14 Jul2:01 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
15 Jul7:16 pm
Surya enters Karka
17 Jul6:20 am
Budha turns direct at 16°32′ Mithuna
17 Jul11:58 am
Shukra rises again (asta ends)^†
22 Jul7:37 am
Mangala enters Karka
30 Jul9:35 am
Rahu enters Mithuna (moving backward)
30 Jul9:35 am
Ketu enters Dhanu (moving backward)

August 2000

1 Aug10:44 am
Shukra enters Simha
3 Aug6:08 am
Budha enters Karka
8 Aug3:35 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 7 Sep^†
16 Aug3:42 am
Surya enters Simha
19 Aug1:38 am
Budha enters Simha
25 Aug2:46 pm
Mangala rises again (asta ends)^†
25 Aug8:36 pm
Shukra enters Kanya

September 2000

3 Sep11:57 pm
Budha enters Kanya
7 Sep12:25 am
Mangala enters Simha
7 Sep12:42 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
12 Sep4:03 am
Shani turns retrograde at 7°07′ Vrishabha
16 Sep3:41 am
Surya enters Kanya
19 Sep7:58 am
Shukra enters Tula
23 Sep12:57 pm
Budha enters Tula
29 Sep5:35 am
Guru turns retrograde at 17°22′ Vrishabha

October 2000

13 Oct10:06 pm
Shukra enters Vrishchika
16 Oct3:38 pm
Surya enters Tula
18 Oct6:40 am
Budha turns retrograde at 21°56′ Tula
24 Oct4:21 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 4 Nov^†
24 Oct8:51 pm
Mangala enters Kanya

November 2000

4 Nov3:50 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
7 Nov3:44 pm
Shukra enters Dhanu
7 Nov6:28 pm
Budha turns direct at 6°05′ Tula
15 Nov2:25 pm
Surya enters Vrishchika
29 Nov12:26 pm
Budha enters Vrishchika
29 Nov3:37 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 17 Jan^†

December 2000

2 Dec7:23 pm
Shukra enters Makara
12 Dec11:23 pm
Mangala enters Tula
15 Dec5:01 am
Surya enters Dhanu
18 Dec8:37 pm
Budha enters Dhanu
28 Dec8:59 pm
Shukra enters Kumbha

† 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 2000: when each graha changes sign