Gochar 2008: planet transit calendar · School of Vedic Sciences, FORE

The grahas on 1 January 2008

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

Gochar calendar for 2008

Times in Auckland (Pacific/Auckland, NZDT/NZST). 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 2008

5 Jan12:50 am
Budha enters Makara
6 Jan5:00 pm
Guru rises again (asta ends)^†
10 Jan8:49 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
15 Jan7:28 am
Surya enters Makara
19 Jan11:01 pm
Shukra enters Dhanu
29 Jan9:30 am
Budha turns retrograde at 29°55′ Makara
31 Jan11:37 am
Mangala turns direct at 0°07′ Mithuna

February 2008

1 Feb4:43 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 13 Feb^†
13 Feb12:09 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
13 Feb8:04 am
Shukra enters Makara
13 Feb8:25 pm
Surya enters Kumbha
19 Feb3:57 pm
Budha turns direct at 14°21′ Makara

March 2008

8 Mar2:45 pm
Shukra enters Kumbha
10 Mar9:56 pm
Budha enters Kumbha
14 Mar5:17 pm
Surya enters Meena
30 Mar9:00 pm
Budha enters Meena

April 2008

1 Apr9:22 pm
Shukra enters Meena
2 Apr11:47 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 29 Apr^†
14 Apr12:49 am
Surya enters Mesha
15 Apr12:14 pm
Budha enters Mesha
26 Apr4:03 am
Shukra enters Mesha
28 Apr8:58 pm
Mangala enters Karka
29 Apr1:08 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
30 Apr12:05 am
Budha enters Vrishabha
30 Apr7:21 pm
Rahu enters Makara (moving backward)
30 Apr7:21 pm
Ketu enters Karka (moving backward)

May 2008

3 May6:26 am
Shukra becomes combust (asta) until 16 Jul^†
3 May3:37 pm
Shani turns direct at 7°43′ Simha
9 May11:53 pm
Guru turns retrograde at 28°24′ Dhanu
14 May9:44 pm
Surya enters Vrishabha
20 May1:07 pm
Shukra enters Vrishabha
27 May3:46 am
Budha turns retrograde at 27°34′ Vrishabha
30 May3:15 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 16 Jun^†

June 2008

13 Jun11:01 pm
Shukra enters Mithuna
15 Jun4:22 am
Surya enters Mithuna
16 Jun4:28 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
20 Jun2:31 am
Budha turns direct at 19°01′ Vrishabha
21 Jun11:10 pm
Mangala enters Simha

July 2008

7 Jul1:23 am
Budha enters Mithuna
8 Jul8:57 am
Shukra enters Karka
16 Jul1:35 am
Shukra rises again (asta ends)^†
16 Jul3:16 pm
Surya enters Karka
17 Jul4:32 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 13 Aug^†
24 Jul3:16 am
Budha enters Karka

August 2008

1 Aug6:40 pm
Shukra enters Simha
7 Aug5:45 pm
Budha enters Simha
10 Aug9:06 am
Mangala enters Kanya
13 Aug12:50 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
16 Aug11:42 pm
Surya enters Simha
17 Aug5:28 pm
Shani becomes combust (asta) until 22 Sep^†
25 Aug9:57 am
Budha enters Kanya
26 Aug4:48 am
Shukra enters Kanya

September 2008

8 Sep4:33 pm
Guru turns direct at 18°34′ Dhanu
16 Sep11:41 pm
Surya enters Kanya
19 Sep4:36 pm
Shukra enters Tula
22 Sep6:25 am
Shani rises again (asta ends)^†
24 Sep7:16 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 28°52′ Kanya
25 Sep5:15 pm
Mangala enters Tula

October 2008

1 Oct12:31 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 13 Oct^†
10 Oct3:39 am
Mangala becomes combust (asta) until 9 Feb^†
13 Oct5:29 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
14 Oct8:21 am
Shukra enters Vrishchika
16 Oct9:06 am
Budha turns direct at 13°35′ Kanya
17 Oct12:40 pm
Surya enters Tula

November 2008

1 Nov10:11 am
Budha enters Tula
2 Nov9:25 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 21 Dec^†
8 Nov3:55 am
Shukra enters Dhanu
8 Nov10:02 am
Mangala enters Vrishchika
16 Nov12:28 pm
Surya enters Vrishchika
20 Nov1:08 am
Budha enters Vrishchika

December 2008

3 Dec9:04 am
Shukra enters Makara
9 Dec2:52 am
Budha enters Dhanu
10 Dec6:22 am
Guru enters Makara
16 Dec3:04 am
Surya enters Dhanu
19 Dec6:48 pm
Mangala enters Dhanu
21 Dec5:27 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
28 Dec1:15 pm
Budha enters Makara
29 Dec1:45 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 2008: when each graha changes sign