Gochar 2010: planet transit calendar · School of Vedic Sciences, FORE

The grahas on 1 January 2010

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

Gochar calendar for 2010

Times in Houston (America/Chicago, CST/CDT). 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 2010

9 Jan11:45 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
13 Jan9:26 am
Shani turns retrograde at 10°40′ Kanya
13 Jan1:56 pm
Shukra enters Makara
14 Jan12:55 am
Surya enters Makara
15 Jan10:52 am
Budha turns direct at 11°34′ Dhanu

February 2010

5 Feb5:35 pm
Budha enters Makara
6 Feb11:10 am
Shukra enters Kumbha
12 Feb1:55 pm
Surya enters Kumbha
13 Feb8:22 pm
Guru becomes combust (asta) until 14 Mar^†
22 Feb5:43 am
Shukra rises again (asta ends)^†
24 Feb3:40 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 28 Mar^†
25 Feb6:09 pm
Budha enters Kumbha

March 2010

2 Mar10:51 am
Shukra enters Meena
10 Mar11:13 am
Mangala turns direct at 6°18′ Karka
14 Mar10:04 am
Budha enters Meena
14 Mar11:47 am
Surya enters Meena
14 Mar5:15 pm
Guru rises again (asta ends)^†
26 Mar3:48 pm
Shukra enters Mesha
28 Mar5:09 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
29 Mar6:01 pm
Budha enters Mesha

April 2010

13 Apr8:15 pm
Surya enters Mesha
17 Apr11:05 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 18°38′ Mesha
20 Apr1:55 am
Shukra enters Vrishabha
20 Apr8:15 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 6 May^†

May 2010

1 May8:37 pm
Guru enters Meena
6 May5:35 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
11 May5:27 pm
Budha turns direct at 8°40′ Mesha
14 May5:04 pm
Surya enters Vrishabha
14 May8:04 pm
Shukra enters Mithuna
26 May5:02 am
Mangala enters Simha
30 May1:41 pm
Shani turns direct at 3°50′ Kanya

June 2010

6 Jun6:25 am
Budha enters Vrishabha
9 Jun1:05 am
Shukra enters Karka
14 Jun11:37 pm
Surya enters Mithuna
16 Jun4:10 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 10 Jul^†
22 Jun10:54 am
Budha enters Mithuna

July 2010

4 Jul11:03 pm
Shukra enters Simha
6 Jul10:50 am
Budha enters Karka
10 Jul9:31 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
16 Jul10:27 am
Surya enters Karka
19 Jul7:44 pm
Mangala enters Kanya
23 Jul6:45 am
Guru turns retrograde at 9°24′ Meena
23 Jul11:27 am
Budha enters Simha

August 2010

1 Aug5:05 am
Shukra enters Kanya
16 Aug6:50 pm
Surya enters Simha
20 Aug2:57 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 25°04′ Simha
27 Aug6:50 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 10 Sep^†

September 2010

1 Sep1:15 am
Shukra enters Tula
5 Sep4:15 pm
Mangala enters Tula
10 Sep9:30 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
12 Sep6:09 pm
Budha turns direct at 11°22′ Simha
13 Sep6:52 am
Shani becomes combust (asta) until 18 Oct^†
16 Sep6:46 pm
Surya enters Kanya
28 Sep1:31 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 9 Nov^†
30 Sep12:17 am
Budha enters Kanya

October 2010

8 Oct2:03 am
Shukra turns retrograde at 19°14′ Tula
17 Oct2:19 am
Budha enters Tula
17 Oct6:44 am
Surya enters Tula
18 Oct3:38 am
Shani rises again (asta ends)^†
19 Oct3:34 pm
Mangala enters Vrishchika
23 Oct7:22 pm
Shukra becomes combust (asta) until 2 Nov^†

November 2010

1 Nov5:50 am
Guru enters Kumbha (moving backward)
2 Nov8:35 pm
Shukra rises again (asta ends)^†
4 Nov7:37 pm
Budha enters Vrishchika
9 Nov4:24 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
16 Nov5:35 am
Surya enters Vrishchika
18 Nov11:09 am
Guru turns direct at 29°29′ Kumbha
18 Nov3:18 pm
Shukra turns direct at 3°39′ Tula
25 Nov4:20 pm
Budha enters Dhanu
27 Nov4:48 am
Mangala becomes combust (asta) until 25 Apr^†
29 Nov6:39 pm
Mangala enters Dhanu

December 2010

5 Dec6:09 pm
Guru enters Meena
10 Dec6:04 am
Budha turns retrograde at 11°56′ Dhanu
14 Dec6:56 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 25 Dec^†
15 Dec8:16 pm
Surya enters Dhanu
22 Dec8:44 pm
Budha enters Vrishchika (moving backward)
25 Dec5:58 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
30 Dec1:20 am
Budha turns direct at 25°37′ 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 2010: when each graha changes sign