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 Seattle (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 2010

9 Jan9:45 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
13 Jan7:26 am
Shani turns retrograde at 10°40′ Kanya
13 Jan11:56 am
Shukra enters Makara
13 Jan10:55 pm
Surya enters Makara
15 Jan8:52 am
Budha turns direct at 11°34′ Dhanu

February 2010

5 Feb3:35 pm
Budha enters Makara
6 Feb9:10 am
Shukra enters Kumbha
12 Feb11:55 am
Surya enters Kumbha
13 Feb6:22 pm
Guru becomes combust (asta) until 14 Mar^†
22 Feb3:43 am
Shukra rises again (asta ends)^†
24 Feb1:40 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 28 Mar^†
25 Feb4:09 pm
Budha enters Kumbha

March 2010

2 Mar8:51 am
Shukra enters Meena
10 Mar9:13 am
Mangala turns direct at 6°18′ Karka
14 Mar8:04 am
Budha enters Meena
14 Mar9:47 am
Surya enters Meena
14 Mar3:15 pm
Guru rises again (asta ends)^†
26 Mar1:48 pm
Shukra enters Mesha
28 Mar3:09 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
29 Mar4:01 pm
Budha enters Mesha

April 2010

13 Apr6:15 pm
Surya enters Mesha
17 Apr9:05 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 18°38′ Mesha
19 Apr11:55 pm
Shukra enters Vrishabha
20 Apr6:15 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 6 May^†

May 2010

1 May6:37 pm
Guru enters Meena
6 May3:35 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
11 May3:27 pm
Budha turns direct at 8°40′ Mesha
14 May3:04 pm
Surya enters Vrishabha
14 May6:04 pm
Shukra enters Mithuna
26 May3:02 am
Mangala enters Simha
30 May11:41 am
Shani turns direct at 3°50′ Kanya

June 2010

6 Jun4:25 am
Budha enters Vrishabha
8 Jun11:05 pm
Shukra enters Karka
14 Jun9:37 pm
Surya enters Mithuna
16 Jun2:10 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 10 Jul^†
22 Jun8:54 am
Budha enters Mithuna

July 2010

4 Jul9:03 pm
Shukra enters Simha
6 Jul8:50 am
Budha enters Karka
10 Jul7:31 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
16 Jul8:27 am
Surya enters Karka
19 Jul5:44 pm
Mangala enters Kanya
23 Jul4:45 am
Guru turns retrograde at 9°24′ Meena
23 Jul9:27 am
Budha enters Simha

August 2010

1 Aug3:05 am
Shukra enters Kanya
16 Aug4:50 pm
Surya enters Simha
20 Aug12:57 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 25°04′ Simha
27 Aug4:50 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 10 Sep^†
31 Aug11:15 pm
Shukra enters Tula

September 2010

5 Sep2:15 pm
Mangala enters Tula
10 Sep7:30 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
12 Sep4:09 pm
Budha turns direct at 11°22′ Simha
13 Sep4:52 am
Shani becomes combust (asta) until 18 Oct^†
16 Sep4:46 pm
Surya enters Kanya
28 Sep11:31 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 9 Nov^†
29 Sep10:17 pm
Budha enters Kanya

October 2010

8 Oct12:03 am
Shukra turns retrograde at 19°14′ Tula
17 Oct12:19 am
Budha enters Tula
17 Oct4:44 am
Surya enters Tula
18 Oct1:38 am
Shani rises again (asta ends)^†
19 Oct1:34 pm
Mangala enters Vrishchika
23 Oct5:22 pm
Shukra becomes combust (asta) until 2 Nov^†

November 2010

1 Nov3:50 am
Guru enters Kumbha (moving backward)
2 Nov6:35 pm
Shukra rises again (asta ends)^†
4 Nov5:37 pm
Budha enters Vrishchika
9 Nov2:24 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
16 Nov3:35 am
Surya enters Vrishchika
18 Nov9:09 am
Guru turns direct at 29°29′ Kumbha
18 Nov1:18 pm
Shukra turns direct at 3°39′ Tula
25 Nov2:20 pm
Budha enters Dhanu
27 Nov2:48 am
Mangala becomes combust (asta) until 25 Apr^†
29 Nov4:39 pm
Mangala enters Dhanu

December 2010

5 Dec4:09 pm
Guru enters Meena
10 Dec4:04 am
Budha turns retrograde at 11°56′ Dhanu
14 Dec4:56 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 25 Dec^†
15 Dec6:16 pm
Surya enters Dhanu
22 Dec6:44 pm
Budha enters Vrishchika (moving backward)
25 Dec3:58 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
29 Dec11:20 pm
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