Planetary transits 2026–2028

Where the grahas are now

Rahu and Ketu: the dates first follow the mean node, as Drik Panchang and most calendars print them; the true node, the one our charts use, comes second and can differ by days to weeks.

Written for 14 October 2026; the line at the top is recalculated for your own day. Dates follow the engine of our charts: sidereal (Lahiri), apparent positions; Rahu and Ketu by the mean node first, then the true node. Other sites can differ by minutes, for Jupiter and Saturn by up to about an hour; more.

The next ten events

What a transit is

A transit (gochara) is a graha's position in the sky today as it travels round the zodiac. Your birth chart is a snapshot of the sky at the moment of birth; transits are the sky as it is now, laid over that snapshot. The classical rule counts a transit from the natal Moon sign (Phaladeepika, ch. 26; the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, ch. 66, gives the Ashtakavarga method for the results of transits); counting from the ascendant as well is a later convention. Count the signs from there, and you know which house of your life the graha is passing through.

Our approach: a transit marks the background of a period, the area of the chart a graha is passing through. It is not a verdict, and it cannot be read without the natal chart: the same Saturn is a different story for two different charts.

Why these dates are not the Western ones

Vedic astrology uses the sidereal zodiac, fixed to the stars, while Western astrology uses the tropical one, fixed to the seasons. Today the two are about 24° apart, so the Sun enters Aries around 14 April here instead of 20 March, and most people's sidereal Sun sign is the one before their Western sign. The ayanamsha we use is Lahiri, the standard in India, and the lunar nodes are the true nodes, exactly as in every chart JyotiSoft draws.

Fast and slow grahas

The Moon changes sign every two to two and a half days, the Sun about once a month (each time is a sankranti), Mercury and Venus in weeks, Mars in a month and a half to two. Jupiter stays about a year in a sign, Saturn two and a half years, and Rahu and Ketu about eighteen months, always moving backwards. By general convention the fast grahas matter for days and weeks and the slow ones for years, which is why Saturn, Jupiter and the nodes are watched most closely.

Retrograde, direct and combust

A graha is called retrograde (vakri) while, seen from the Earth, it appears to move backwards against the stars; it turns direct (margi) when it resumes its forward motion. The Sun and the Moon never turn retrograde; Rahu and Ketu are always counted as retrograde. In the classical measure of strength a retrograde graha is not weak: the Shadbala chapter gives vakra the highest motional strength (BPHS, ch. 27, sl. 21–23). A graha that stands too close to the Sun to be seen is combust (asta): the BPHS (ch. 7, sl. 28–29) says that a graha in the Sun's longitude destroys its good effects, and the degrees of the combustion zone are in the table of R. Santhanam's translation (p. 100). These are notes for a reading, not prohibitions.

How the times on this page work

Every moment below is stored in UTC and shown in your own time zone: your browser tells the page which one it is (no location permission is asked), and the line above the tables lets you search for another city. Times are to the minute. Other sites can differ from ours: they may use apparent instead of geometric positions, another ayanamsha, or the mean node, and that moves a date by minutes for the Sun and Venus, up to a couple of hours for Saturn, and by days to weeks for Rahu and Ketu.

How we calculate and verify

Positions come from the same engine as the charts in JyotiSoft: sidereal zodiac, Lahiri ayanamsha, apparent positions (as the Indian Astronomical Ephemeris and Drik Panchang; since 14 October 2026), moments to the minute, stored in UTC. Rahu and Ketu are given by the mean node first, the date most calendars print, and by the true node that our charts use.

• Checked against independent sources. Every sign change and every retrograde or direct turn is compared, in automated tests that fail the build on a mismatch, with the published tables of Drik Panchang (New Delhi, Lahiri); eclipses with the NASA GSFC catalogue; tithi and Ekadashi with Drik Panchang. Drik's Lahiri runs a few arcseconds ahead of the standard one of the Indian ephemeris, so its moments are later than ours by about 3 minutes for the Sun and up to an hour for Jupiter and Saturn, more when they move slowly; the tests model exactly that difference and allow nothing more. Last cross-check: 14 October 2026.
• What follows the classical texts. What a graha signifies and which are benefic or malefic: Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, ch. 3 sl. 12–15, ch. 32 sl. 18–21, ch. 34 sl. 8–10 and 16; combustion limits: BPHS ch. 7 (table of degrees in the translator's note; our charts use it as printed, Saturn 16° in direct and retrograde motion alike); strength of a retrograde graha: BPHS ch. 27 sl. 21–23; transits counted from the Moon sign: Phaladeepika ch. 26, the Ashtakavarga method: BPHS ch. 66. Chapters and verses follow R. Santhanam's English edition.
• What does not. Sade Sati, Guru Peyarchi and the sankranti festivals are later or regional traditions. Practical readings such as “Mercury retrograde, a time to review” are modern conventions. We mark them as such.

How the site's texts are written and checked

Questions

See also

• Horoscope 2027
• Planetary transits 2027
• Ekadashi 2027
• Hindu festivals 2026–2027
• Wedding
• Moving into a home
• Buying a car
• Buying property
• 2026 or 2027 for a wedding?
• Purnima and Amavasya 2027
• Eclipses of 2027
• Annular solar eclipse, 6 February 2027
• Jupiter back in Cancer, January – June 2027
• Saturn in Aries 2027
• Mars retrograde, January – April 2027
• Mercury retrograde, February – March 2027