Gochar 2013: planet transit calendar · School of Vedic Sciences, FORE

The grahas on 1 January 2013

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

Gochar calendar for 2013

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 2013

4 Jan3:54 am
Shukra enters Dhanu
13 Jan7:17 pm
Surya enters Makara
15 Jan11:10 am
Budha enters Makara
25 Jan6:47 am
Mangala enters Kumbha
28 Jan2:31 am
Shukra enters Makara
30 Jan5:53 am
Guru turns direct at 12°17′ Vrishabha
31 Jan3:14 am
Mangala becomes combust (asta) until 27 Jun^†

February 2013

1 Feb10:51 pm
Budha enters Kumbha
6 Feb6:31 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
12 Feb8:19 am
Surya enters Kumbha
16 Feb2:44 am
Shukra becomes combust (asta) until 6 May^†
18 Feb10:30 am
Shani turns retrograde at 17°29′ Tula
21 Feb1:33 am
Shukra enters Kumbha
23 Feb3:40 am
Budha turns retrograde at 25°50′ Kumbha
25 Feb2:08 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 10 Mar^†

March 2013

4 Mar8:55 am
Mangala enters Meena
10 Mar12:13 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
14 Mar6:15 am
Surya enters Meena
17 Mar3:19 am
Shukra enters Meena
17 Mar3:03 pm
Budha turns direct at 11°36′ Kumbha

April 2013

9 Apr3:18 pm
Budha enters Meena
10 Apr6:52 am
Shukra enters Mesha
12 Apr8:53 am
Mangala enters Mesha
13 Apr2:47 pm
Surya enters Mesha
28 Apr7:53 am
Budha enters Mesha
28 Apr5:18 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 23 May^†

May 2013

4 May1:49 pm
Shukra enters Vrishabha
6 May3:54 am
Shukra rises again (asta ends)^†
12 May10:04 pm
Budha enters Vrishabha
14 May11:40 am
Surya enters Vrishabha
22 May10:29 pm
Mangala enters Vrishabha
23 May8:15 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
27 May2:04 pm
Budha enters Mithuna
29 May12:16 am
Shukra enters Mithuna
30 May7:32 pm
Guru enters Mithuna

June 2013

4 Jun8:00 am
Guru becomes combust (asta) until 4 Jul^†
14 Jun6:14 pm
Surya enters Mithuna
22 Jun2:20 pm
Shukra enters Karka
26 Jun8:06 am
Budha turns retrograde at 29°04′ Mithuna
27 Jun8:27 am
Mangala rises again (asta ends)^†

July 2013

1 Jul2:11 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 17 Jul^†
4 Jul2:26 pm
Mangala enters Mithuna
4 Jul3:17 pm
Guru rises again (asta ends)^†
8 Jul12:45 am
Shani turns direct at 10°47′ Tula
16 Jul5:04 am
Surya enters Karka
17 Jul8:54 am
Shukra enters Simha
17 Jul10:03 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
20 Jul1:22 pm
Budha turns direct at 19°19′ Mithuna

August 2013

4 Aug11:00 am
Budha enters Karka
10 Aug10:14 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 10 Sep^†
11 Aug10:09 am
Shukra enters Kanya
16 Aug1:26 pm
Surya enters Simha
18 Aug3:12 pm
Mangala enters Karka
20 Aug6:20 pm
Budha enters Simha

September 2013

5 Sep2:17 pm
Budha enters Kanya
5 Sep10:01 pm
Shukra enters Tula
10 Sep5:06 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
16 Sep1:22 pm
Surya enters Kanya
24 Sep7:56 pm
Budha enters Tula

October 2013

2 Oct4:15 am
Shukra enters Vrishchika
5 Oct8:54 am
Mangala enters Simha
17 Oct1:20 am
Surya enters Tula
20 Oct5:45 am
Shani becomes combust (asta) until 23 Nov^†
21 Oct5:28 am
Budha turns retrograde at 24°21′ Tula
27 Oct1:01 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 7 Nov^†
30 Oct3:45 am
Shukra enters Dhanu

November 2013

6 Nov10:46 pm
Guru turns retrograde at 26°28′ Mithuna
7 Nov11:09 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
10 Nov3:12 pm
Budha turns direct at 8°26′ Tula
16 Nov12:09 am
Surya enters Vrishchika
23 Nov3:31 am
Shani rises again (asta ends)^†
26 Nov7:46 am
Mangala enters Kanya
30 Nov10:28 pm
Budha enters Vrishchika

December 2013

3 Dec3:11 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 20 Jan^†
5 Dec2:30 am
Shukra enters Makara
15 Dec2:48 pm
Surya enters Dhanu
20 Dec9:20 am
Budha enters Dhanu
21 Dec3:51 pm
Shukra turns retrograde at 4°56′ Makara

† 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 2013: when each graha changes sign