Choose your town, a year from 1900 to 2074, a planet and, if you want one answer, a sign above, and this free tool lists every sign change of the grahas in that year: the Sun, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu. Each row gives the date and the local time, the sign left, the sign entered and how long the planet stays. Ask a question such as “when does Saturn enter Mesha” by choosing the planet and the sign; if the planet does not enter that sign in the year chosen, the tool finds the nearest entry before and after.
How it works
The positions come from the NASA JPL DE440 tables this site uses for every chart and panchang. The exact moment of every sign change, retrograde returns included, was worked out once from those tables for the transits page, and this tool reads the same moments, so the two always agree. The zodiac is sidereal with the Lahiri ayanamsa, the Indian standard. Rahu is the mean lunar node and Ketu is always the sign opposite it, so the two change sign at the same moment.
Times are turned into the clock of the place you choose, with daylight saving where it applies, and cut to the minute as a panchang prints them. The same moment can fall on different dates in India and abroad, which is why the place is asked for.
Reading the result
For each planet the tool first says the sign it is in on 1 January of the year, then lists its changes. A row marked retrograde is a planet moving backwards that steps back into the sign before; it will enter the later sign again when it turns direct. The “stays until” column gives the next change of that planet, even when it falls in a later year.
As examples from our tables: Saturn entered Meena (Pisces) on 29 March 2025 at 9:44 pm Indian Standard Time, enters Mesha (Aries) on 3 June 2027 at 5:27 am, and steps back into Meena while retrograde on 20 October 2027 at 7:12 am. Jupiter enters Karka (Cancer) on 2 June 2026 at 1:49 am and Simha (Leo) on 31 October 2026 at 12:02 pm. Rahu enters Makara (Capricorn) on 5 December 2026 at 10:33 pm.
We checked the tool against an independent calculation (the Swiss Ephemeris, sidereal Lahiri, mean node) for every sign change in sixteen test years from 1900 to 2074: all 800 changes are the same planets, signs and order, and every time agrees to within 99 seconds. The method behind our numbers is on the accuracy page.
Where traditions differ
Western astrology uses the tropical zodiac, so its sign changes fall on other dates. Within the sidereal zodiac, an ayanamsa other than Lahiri, such as KP or Raman, moves every sign change; the ayanamsa comparison shows how far apart they are. Some astrologers use the true node for Rahu and Ketu instead of the mean node; in our tables from 1900 to 2074 the two put a node’s sign change up to 34 days apart. For the Sun, the Sankranti calculator follows an almanac convention that places each Sankranti between 6.0 and 6.6 minutes later than this tool, and it also gives the day of observance and the punya kaal.
What it does not do
It does not list the Moon, which changes sign many times a month; the Moon sign today page follows it. It leaves out Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, which classical Vedic astrology does not use, and it does not list changes of nakshatra. It does not read what a sign change means for you: for that, the Saturn, Jupiter and Rahu and Ketu transit calculators count the houses from your Moon sign.
Frequently asked questions
↳ When does Saturn enter a given sign?
Choose Saturn, the sign and the year. If Saturn enters it that year, the tool gives the date and time; if not, it gives the last entry before the year and the next one after it. A planet can enter the same sign twice in a year when it turns retrograde near the boundary, as Jupiter entered Mithuna (Gemini) in May 2025 and again, moving backwards, in December 2025.
↳ Why does a planet enter the same sign twice?
Seen from the Earth, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn sometimes appear to move backwards (retrograde). A planet that has just crossed into a sign can slip back into the one before and cross again weeks or months later. The tool lists every crossing and marks the backward ones.
↳ Why do other websites give a different date or time?
Most differences come from the zodiac (tropical or sidereal), the ayanamsa, the mean or true node, or the time zone. This tool uses the sidereal zodiac, the Lahiri ayanamsa and the mean node, and gives the time at the place you choose.
↳ Are Rahu and Ketu always in opposite signs?
Yes. Ketu is the point opposite Rahu, so they change sign at the same moment, each into the sign opposite the other. Both move backwards through the zodiac.
↳ Which years can I check?
Any year from 1900 to 2074, the years the planetary tables behind the tool hold. A nearest entry is searched for within those years only.
↳ Is a sign change good or bad for me?
The date is the same for everyone; what it means depends on your own chart. The transit calculators linked above read a change from your Moon sign, and the dasha you are running counts for more than any one transit.