Gochar 2018: planet transit calendar · School of Vedic Sciences, FORE

The grahas on 1 January 2018

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

Gochar calendar for 2018

Times in Wellington (Pacific/Auckland, NZDT/NZST). 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 2018

7 Jan3:18 am
Budha enters Dhanu
8 Jan1:25 am
Shani rises again (asta ends)^†
13 Jan10:13 pm
Shukra enters Makara
14 Jan9:15 pm
Surya enters Makara
17 Jan12:39 pm
Mangala enters Vrishchika
27 Jan7:22 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 6 Mar^†
28 Jan8:32 am
Budha enters Makara

February 2018

6 Feb7:27 pm
Shukra enters Kumbha
13 Feb10:16 am
Surya enters Kumbha
15 Feb10:53 am
Budha enters Kumbha
20 Feb11:57 am
Shukra rises again (asta ends)^†

March 2018

2 Mar7:11 pm
Shukra enters Meena
3 Mar2:23 pm
Budha enters Meena
6 Mar10:11 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
8 Mar1:55 am
Mangala enters Dhanu
9 Mar5:27 pm
Guru turns retrograde at 29°07′ Tula
15 Mar7:11 am
Surya enters Meena
23 Mar1:18 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 22°48′ Meena
25 Mar7:55 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 9 Apr^†
26 Mar11:16 pm
Shukra enters Mesha

April 2018

9 Apr3:51 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
14 Apr2:42 pm
Surya enters Mesha
15 Apr9:21 pm
Budha turns direct at 10°40′ Meena
18 Apr1:12 pm
Shani turns retrograde at 15°02′ Dhanu
20 Apr8:38 am
Shukra enters Vrishabha

May 2018

2 May10:45 pm
Mangala enters Makara
10 May12:01 am
Budha enters Mesha
15 May3:16 am
Shukra enters Mithuna
15 May11:33 am
Surya enters Vrishabha
25 May7:45 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 18 Jun^†
27 May2:53 pm
Budha enters Vrishabha

June 2018

9 Jun9:11 am
Shukra enters Karka
10 Jun2:02 pm
Budha enters Mithuna
15 Jun6:06 pm
Surya enters Mithuna
18 Jun5:28 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
26 Jun12:34 am
Budha enters Karka
27 Jun9:00 am
Mangala turns retrograde at 15°07′ Makara

July 2018

5 Jul8:54 am
Shukra enters Simha
11 Jul5:20 am
Guru turns direct at 19°14′ Tula
17 Jul4:56 am
Surya enters Karka
26 Jul5:01 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 29°20′ Karka

August 2018

1 Aug6:56 pm
Shukra enters Kanya
2 Aug9:53 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 17 Aug^†
17 Aug7:12 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
17 Aug1:19 pm
Surya enters Simha
19 Aug4:25 pm
Budha turns direct at 17°25′ Karka
28 Aug2:09 am
Mangala turns direct at 4°30′ Makara

September 2018

2 Sep5:56 am
Shukra enters Tula
3 Sep3:36 am
Budha enters Simha
5 Sep10:46 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 11 Oct^†
6 Sep11:42 pm
Shani turns direct at 8°26′ Dhanu
17 Sep1:16 pm
Surya enters Kanya
19 Sep10:44 am
Budha enters Kanya

October 2018

6 Oct8:02 am
Shukra turns retrograde at 16°43′ Tula
6 Oct8:12 pm
Budha enters Tula
11 Oct6:09 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
12 Oct2:52 am
Guru enters Vrishchika
18 Oct2:14 am
Surya enters Tula
22 Oct2:24 am
Shukra becomes combust (asta) until 1 Nov^†
27 Oct4:13 am
Budha enters Vrishchika

November 2018

1 Nov3:40 am
Shukra rises again (asta ends)^†
6 Nov3:53 pm
Mangala enters Kumbha
12 Nov7:48 pm
Guru becomes combust (asta) until 10 Dec^†
16 Nov11:52 pm
Shukra turns direct at 1°08′ Tula
17 Nov2:02 am
Surya enters Vrishchika
17 Nov2:32 pm
Budha turns retrograde at 19°22′ Vrishchika
22 Nov10:50 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 3 Dec^†

December 2018

3 Dec11:52 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
7 Dec10:22 am
Budha turns direct at 3°09′ Vrishchika
10 Dec5:10 pm
Guru rises again (asta ends)^†
16 Dec4:40 pm
Surya enters Dhanu
17 Dec3:22 am
Shani becomes combust (asta) until 19 Jan^†
23 Dec8:27 pm
Mangala enters Meena

† 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 2018: when each graha changes sign