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 San Francisco (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 2015

1 Jan4:24 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
4 Jan12:19 pm
Mangala enters Kumbha
14 Jan5:50 am
Surya enters Makara
21 Jan7:53 am
Budha turns retrograde at 23°01′ Makara
22 Jan12:42 pm
Shukra enters Kumbha
24 Jan6:13 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 4 Feb^†

February 2015

4 Feb8:31 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
11 Feb6:57 am
Budha turns direct at 7°14′ Makara
11 Feb11:32 pm
Mangala enters Meena
12 Feb6:49 pm
Surya enters Kumbha
15 Feb4:34 pm
Shukra enters Meena

March 2015

8 Mar5:55 pm
Budha enters Kumbha
12 Mar5:31 am
Shukra enters Mesha
14 Mar7:29 am
Shani turns retrograde at 10°52′ Vrishchika
14 Mar4:41 pm
Surya enters Meena
23 Mar10:08 am
Mangala enters Mesha
25 Mar11:30 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 22 Apr^†
27 Mar1:02 pm
Budha enters Meena

April 2015

6 Apr7:08 am
Shukra enters Vrishabha
8 Apr10:14 am
Guru turns direct at 18°31′ Karka
9 Apr10:47 pm
Mangala becomes combust (asta) until 11 Aug^†
11 Apr8:07 pm
Budha enters Mesha
14 Apr1:10 am
Surya enters Mesha
22 Apr8:52 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
26 Apr11:25 pm
Budha enters Vrishabha

May 2015

2 May7:57 am
Shukra enters Mithuna
3 May11:15 am
Mangala enters Vrishabha
14 May10:01 pm
Surya enters Vrishabha
18 May6:48 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 19°05′ Vrishabha
21 May9:13 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 7 Jun^†
30 May8:18 am
Shukra enters Karka

June 2015

7 Jun8:59 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
11 Jun3:33 pm
Budha turns direct at 10°29′ Vrishabha
15 Jun4:35 am
Surya enters Mithuna
15 Jun12:30 pm
Mangala enters Mithuna

July 2015

4 Jul9:06 pm
Shukra enters Simha
4 Jul11:44 pm
Budha enters Mithuna
11 Jul1:16 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 6 Aug^†
13 Jul5:21 pm
Guru enters Simha
16 Jul3:25 pm
Surya enters Karka
20 Jul10:29 am
Budha enters Karka
25 Jul2:27 am
Shukra turns retrograde at 6°42′ Simha
30 Jul1:39 pm
Mangala enters Karka

August 2015

1 Aug11:27 pm
Shani turns direct at 4°13′ Vrishchika
4 Aug5:39 am
Budha enters Simha
6 Aug6:17 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
10 Aug9:30 am
Shukra becomes combust (asta) until 20 Aug^†
11 Aug1:50 pm
Mangala rises again (asta ends)^†
11 Aug8:51 pm
Guru becomes combust (asta) until 10 Sep^†
13 Aug5:07 am
Shukra enters Karka (moving backward)
16 Aug11:48 pm
Surya enters Simha
20 Aug2:50 pm
Shukra rises again (asta ends)^†
22 Aug8:02 pm
Budha enters Kanya

September 2015

6 Sep1:30 am
Shukra turns direct at 20°19′ Karka
10 Sep6:24 am
Guru rises again (asta ends)^†
15 Sep8:50 am
Mangala enters Simha
16 Sep11:43 pm
Surya enters Kanya
17 Sep11:08 am
Budha turns retrograde at 21°51′ Kanya
24 Sep7:39 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 6 Oct^†
30 Sep3:38 pm
Shukra enters Simha

October 2015

6 Oct6:45 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
9 Oct7:57 am
Budha turns direct at 6°50′ Kanya
17 Oct11:40 am
Surya enters Tula
26 Oct2:05 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 13 Dec^†
29 Oct10:10 am
Budha enters Tula

November 2015

2 Nov5:56 pm
Shukra enters Kanya
2 Nov6:29 pm
Mangala enters Kanya
12 Nov8:37 pm
Shani becomes combust (asta) until 16 Dec^†
16 Nov10:28 am
Surya enters Vrishchika
16 Nov5:57 pm
Budha enters Vrishchika
29 Nov6:12 pm
Shukra enters Tula

December 2015

5 Dec10:28 pm
Budha enters Dhanu
13 Dec1:12 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
16 Dec1:07 am
Surya enters Dhanu
16 Dec9:12 am
Shani rises again (asta ends)^†
23 Dec4:18 pm
Mangala enters Tula
25 Dec1:40 am
Shukra enters Vrishchika
26 Dec10:13 am
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