Gochar 2024: planet transit calendar · School of Vedic Sciences, FORE

The grahas on 1 January 2024

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

Gochar calendar for 2024

Times in Abu Dhabi (Asia/Dubai, GST). 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 2024

2 Jan7:07 am
Budha turns direct at 27°59′ Vrishchika
7 Jan7:40 pm
Budha enters Dhanu
15 Jan1:09 am
Surya enters Makara
16 Jan8:37 pm
Mangala rises again (asta ends)^†
18 Jan7:23 pm
Shukra enters Dhanu

February 2024

1 Feb12:50 pm
Budha enters Makara
5 Feb8:07 pm
Mangala enters Makara
8 Feb7:58 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 14 Mar^†
12 Feb3:19 am
Shukra enters Makara
12 Feb3:27 am
Shani becomes combust (asta) until 17 Mar^†
13 Feb2:09 pm
Surya enters Kumbha
20 Feb4:29 am
Budha enters Kumbha

March 2024

7 Mar8:03 am
Budha enters Meena
7 Mar9:13 am
Shukra enters Kumbha
14 Mar11:02 am
Surya enters Meena
14 Mar11:47 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
15 Mar4:33 pm
Mangala enters Kumbha
17 Mar3:03 am
Shani rises again (asta ends)^†
26 Mar1:22 am
Budha enters Mesha
31 Mar3:13 pm
Shukra enters Meena

April 2024

2 Apr2:14 am
Budha turns retrograde at 3°02′ Mesha
4 Apr9:04 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 19 Apr^†
9 Apr8:16 pm
Budha enters Meena (moving backward)
13 Apr7:30 pm
Surya enters Mesha
19 Apr8:51 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
23 Apr7:04 am
Mangala enters Meena
24 Apr10:25 pm
Shukra enters Mesha
25 Apr4:54 pm
Budha turns direct at 21°47′ Meena
28 Apr6:06 am
Shukra becomes combust (asta) until 11 Jul^†

May 2024

1 May11:14 am
Guru enters Vrishabha
3 May9:29 pm
Guru becomes combust (asta) until 3 Jun^†
10 May5:18 pm
Budha enters Mesha
14 May4:19 pm
Surya enters Vrishabha
19 May7:10 am
Shukra enters Vrishabha
31 May10:43 am
Budha enters Vrishabha

June 2024

1 Jun2:01 pm
Mangala enters Mesha
2 Jun4:49 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 27 Jun^†
3 Jun2:49 am
Guru rises again (asta ends)^†
12 Jun4:56 pm
Shukra enters Mithuna
14 Jun9:33 pm
Budha enters Mithuna
14 Jun10:52 pm
Surya enters Mithuna
27 Jun2:57 am
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
29 Jun10:51 am
Budha enters Karka
29 Jun10:33 pm
Shani turns retrograde at 25°14′ Kumbha

July 2024

7 Jul2:57 am
Shukra enters Karka
11 Jul7:01 am
Shukra rises again (asta ends)^†
12 Jul5:21 pm
Mangala enters Vrishabha
16 Jul9:43 am
Surya enters Karka
19 Jul7:05 pm
Budha enters Simha
31 Jul12:59 pm
Shukra enters Simha

August 2024

5 Aug8:55 am
Budha turns retrograde at 9°55′ Simha
12 Aug8:24 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 26 Aug^†
16 Aug6:08 pm
Surya enters Simha
22 Aug5:14 am
Budha enters Karka (moving backward)
24 Aug11:42 pm
Shukra enters Kanya
26 Aug1:47 pm
Mangala enters Mithuna
26 Aug4:49 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
29 Aug1:14 am
Budha turns direct at 27°13′ Karka

September 2024

4 Sep10:05 am
Budha enters Simha
14 Sep11:24 am
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 22 Oct^†
16 Sep6:07 pm
Surya enters Kanya
18 Sep12:23 pm
Shukra enters Tula
23 Sep8:38 am
Budha enters Kanya

October 2024

9 Oct10:48 am
Guru turns retrograde at 27°08′ Vrishabha
10 Oct9:46 am
Budha enters Tula
13 Oct4:26 am
Shukra enters Vrishchika
17 Oct6:07 am
Surya enters Tula
20 Oct12:41 pm
Mangala enters Karka
22 Oct5:33 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
29 Oct9:05 pm
Budha enters Vrishchika

November 2024

7 Nov1:57 am
Shukra enters Dhanu
15 Nov6:51 pm
Shani turns direct at 18°29′ Kumbha
16 Nov5:57 am
Surya enters Vrishchika
26 Nov6:42 am
Budha turns retrograde at 28°28′ Vrishchika
30 Nov6:52 pm
Budha becomes combust (asta) until 11 Dec^†

December 2024

2 Dec10:23 am
Shukra enters Makara
7 Dec3:29 am
Mangala turns retrograde at 11°58′ Karka
11 Dec6:17 pm
Budha rises again (asta ends)^†
15 Dec8:35 pm
Surya enters Dhanu
16 Dec12:56 am
Budha turns direct at 12°11′ Vrishchika
28 Dec10:05 pm
Shukra enters Kumbha

† 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 2024: when each graha changes sign