Planetary Transits

How to read this page

The Now view lists the nine grahas at the moment shown at the top. For each one you see its degree and sign, its nakshatra and pada, its daily motion, and when it next changes sign. Tap a row for the detail an astrologer checks before reading a transit: the sign lord and nakshatra lord, dignity, the exact time of the next sign and nakshatra change, how long a retrograde runs and when it ends, and how close the planet is to the Sun.

Move the moment with the arrows or the date box, or tap any event in the lists to jump the whole page to that minute. Now brings it back to the present, and while it is on, the page keeps moving with the clock.

Upcoming is the calendar of changes: sign changes, nakshatra changes, retrograde and direct stations, combustion, eclipses and new and full moons, for the next 30 days, 90 days or year. Filter by kind and by planet.

Gochar reads the transits from your Moon sign, the way a traditional panchang does. Choose your Moon sign once and the page shows each graha’s house from it, whether that house is classically favourable, and whether another planet obstructs it (vedha). It also tells you where Saturn stands for Sade Sati and dhaiya.

Table is a monthly ephemeris: every graha for every day of the month, at 00:00 UT, at your local midnight or at sunrise in your city. It prints on one page.

Settings, and why they matter

Zodiac. Vedic astrology uses the sidereal zodiac, measured from the stars. The default is Lahiri (Chitrapaksha), the ayanamsa adopted by the Government of India’s Calendar Reform Committee and used by most panchangs. Krishnamurti (KP), Raman and True Chitrapaksha are there for astrologers who work with them, and Tropical for Western charts. The difference between Lahiri and tropical is about 24 degrees at present, which is why the Sun enters sidereal Aries around 14 April rather than 21 March.

Rahu and Ketu. The mean node moves steadily backwards; the true node wobbles around it by up to about a degree and a half. Most Indian software uses the mean node, and so does this page unless you switch.

Time zone and city. Planet positions are the same for everyone at a given instant; only the clock time changes. A city adds what depends on the horizon: sunrise and sunset, Rahu Kaal, Yamaganda, Gulika Kaal, Abhijit muhurta, the Choghadiya of the day and night, the current Hora, and the rising sign on the chart.

Combustion. A graha is counted combust when it is within the classical distance from the Sun: Moon 12 degrees, Mars 17, Mercury 14 (12 when retrograde), Jupiter 11, Venus 10 (8 when retrograde), Saturn 15.

Using transits for muhurta

For a muhurta, astrologers usually look first at the panchang of the day (tithi, nakshatra, yoga and karana, shown under the planets), then at Rahu Kaal and the Choghadiya for the hour, and then at the transits that matter for the work in hand: Jupiter and Venus not combust for marriage, Mercury direct for agreements and paperwork, the Moon not in the 8th from the person’s Moon sign. Our Chandrabala calculator checks that last one for any date.

A transit is one layer of a reading. The birth chart and the running dasha decide how a transit is felt; the same Saturn transit is a very different time for two people. If you want a transit read against your own chart, a consultation does exactly that.

Related tools

• Planet position calculator: the grahas at your birth, or any past moment, with the chart
• Sade Sati calculator: every Sade Sati of your life, with dates
• Moon sign calculator: find your rashi to use the Gochar view
• Saturn return calculator
• Free kundali: the full birth chart, dashas, yogas and doshas

Questions