Gochar 2015: planet transit calendar · School of Vedic Sciences, FORE

The grahas on 1 January 2015

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

Gochar calendar for 2015

Times in Nairobi (Africa/Nairobi, UTC+3). 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 2015

1 Jan9:08 am
Budha enters Makara
2 Jan3:24 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
4 Jan11:19 pm
Mangala enters Kumbha
14 Jan4:50 pm
Surya enters Makara
21 Jan6:53 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 23°01′ Makara
22 Jan11:42 pm
Shukra enters Kumbha
24 Jan5:13 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 5 Feb^†

February 2015

5 Feb7:31 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
11 Feb5:57 pm
Budha turns direct at 7°14′ Makara
12 Feb10:32 am
Mangala enters Meena
13 Feb5:49 am
Surya enters Kumbha
16 Feb3:34 am
Shukra enters Meena

March 2015

9 Mar3:55 am
Budha enters Kumbha
12 Mar3:31 pm
Shukra enters Mesha
14 Mar5:29 pm
Shani turns retrograde at 10°52′ Vrishchika
15 Mar2:41 am
Surya enters Meena
23 Mar8:08 pm
Mangala enters Mesha
26 Mar9:30 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 23 Apr^†
27 Mar11:02 pm
Budha enters Meena

April 2015

6 Apr5:08 pm
Shukra enters Vrishabha
8 Apr8:14 pm
Guru turns direct at 18°31′ Karka
10 Apr8:47 am
Mangala becomes combust (asta) until 11 Aug^†
12 Apr6:07 am
Budha enters Mesha
14 Apr11:10 am
Surya enters Mesha
23 Apr6:52 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
27 Apr9:25 am
Budha enters Vrishabha

May 2015

2 May5:57 pm
Shukra enters Mithuna
3 May9:15 pm
Mangala enters Vrishabha
15 May8:01 am
Surya enters Vrishabha
19 May4:48 am
Budha turns retrograde at 19°05′ Vrishabha
22 May7:13 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 8 Jun^†
30 May6:18 pm
Shukra enters Karka

June 2015

8 Jun6:59 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
12 Jun1:33 am
Budha turns direct at 10°29′ Vrishabha
15 Jun2:35 pm
Surya enters Mithuna
15 Jun10:30 pm
Mangala enters Mithuna

July 2015

5 Jul7:06 am
Shukra enters Simha
5 Jul9:44 am
Budha enters Mithuna
11 Jul11:16 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 6 Aug^†
14 Jul3:21 am
Guru enters Simha
17 Jul1:25 am
Surya enters Karka
20 Jul8:29 pm
Budha enters Karka
25 Jul12:27 pm
Shukra turns retrograde at 6°42′ Simha
30 Jul11:39 pm
Mangala enters Karka

August 2015

2 Aug9:27 am
Shani turns direct at 4°13′ Vrishchika
4 Aug3:39 pm
Budha enters Simha
6 Aug4:17 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
10 Aug7:30 pm
Shukra becomes combust (asta) until 21 Aug^†
11 Aug11:50 pm
Mangala rises again (asta ends)^†
12 Aug6:51 am
Guru becomes combust (asta) until 10 Sep^†
13 Aug3:07 pm
Shukra enters Karka (moving backward)
17 Aug9:48 am
Surya enters Simha
21 Aug12:50 am
Shukra rises again (asta ends)^†
23 Aug6:02 am
Budha enters Kanya

September 2015

6 Sep11:30 am
Shukra turns direct at 20°19′ Karka
10 Sep4:24 pm
Guru rises again (asta ends)^†
15 Sep6:50 pm
Mangala enters Simha
17 Sep9:43 am
Surya enters Kanya
17 Sep9:08 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 21°51′ Kanya
24 Sep5:39 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 7 Oct^†

October 2015

1 Oct1:38 am
Shukra enters Simha
7 Oct4:45 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
9 Oct5:57 pm
Budha turns direct at 6°50′ Kanya
17 Oct9:40 pm
Surya enters Tula
26 Oct12:05 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 13 Dec^†
29 Oct8:10 pm
Budha enters Tula

November 2015

3 Nov4:56 am
Shukra enters Kanya
3 Nov5:29 am
Mangala enters Kanya
13 Nov7:37 am
Shani becomes combust (asta) until 16 Dec^†
16 Nov9:28 pm
Surya enters Vrishchika
17 Nov4:57 am
Budha enters Vrishchika
30 Nov5:12 am
Shukra enters Tula

December 2015

6 Dec9:28 am
Budha enters Dhanu
13 Dec12:12 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
16 Dec12:07 pm
Surya enters Dhanu
16 Dec8:12 pm
Shani rises again (asta ends)^†
24 Dec3:18 am
Mangala enters Tula
25 Dec12:40 pm
Shukra enters Vrishchika
26 Dec9:13 pm
Budha enters 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 2015: when each graha changes sign