One longitude, twelve equal rashis
This calendar calculates the apparent geocentric ecliptic longitude of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, or Saturn at a UTC instant. It subtracts the site’s approximate Lahiri ayanamsa and divides the resulting sidereal circle into twelve equal 30° sectors. Mesha starts at 0°, Karka at 90°, and Makara at 270°. The rashi names refer to this angular grid, not the unequal outlines of visual constellations. The Positional Astronomy Centre’s Rashtriya Panchang explanation distinguishes nirayana longitudes and the ayanamsa used to obtain them.
Ingress in both directions
A forward boundary crossing enters the next rashi and receives a direct-entry label. Apparent retrograde motion can take a planet back across the same boundary. That reverse crossing appears as a retrograde return into the previous rashi. When the planet resumes forward motion it can enter the later rashi again. The word “return” describes the observed geocentric longitude on the zodiac grid; the planet has not reversed its physical orbit around the Sun. A repeated rashi name is therefore an expected part of a transit list rather than a duplicate record.
As an example, Drik Panchang’s 2026 Budha list places Mercury into Karka in late June, back into Mithuna in July, and again into Karka in August. Its Shukra list similarly shows Venus in Tula in September, back into Kanya in November, and again into Tula later that month. This site’s independent model reproduces the sequence, though exact minutes differ under its ephemeris and ayanamsa choices.
Why Saturn can have no row
A table of ingresses lists boundary crossings, not every day of residence. A slow graha may spend the whole selected year inside one rashi. Drik Panchang’s 2026 Shani transit page says Saturn has no rashi ingress in that year. The calculator still reports the modeled sign at the opening local midnight so an empty Saturn row has context. Select 2027 to see later modeled crossings, and remember that a different ayanamsa can shift an event close to New Year.
UTC instants and fixed local clocks
An ingress is one modeled UTC instant; the same event can land on different civil dates in different places. The selected year runs from January 1 at 00:00 local to the next January 1 at 00:00 local under the supplied fixed UTC offset. The display includes both that local clock and UTC. A transition exactly at the next local New Year belongs to the following year. The offset is entered explicitly because a number cannot infer daylight-saving changes or historical jurisdiction rules; if those matter, compare the UTC column with the correct location rule for that date.
Computation and uncertainty
Astronomy Engine 2.1.19 gives geocentric planet vectors and true ecliptic longitude of date. The calculator subtracts an approximate Lahiri value based on a J2000 reference, precession polynomial, and nutation. Positions are sampled at one-hour intervals and a detected boundary is narrowed by bisection to a 30-second bracket. Times are printed to the minute and the CSV carries the UTC timestamp. Near a station exactly on a boundary, a very brief double crossing within the hourly sampling interval could be missed. This is an explicit numerical limit of the calculator.
This site does not claim to reproduce Swiss Ephemeris or an official regional panchanga. The model’s 2026 examples typically lie within minutes of Drik Panchang for Mercury, Venus, and Mars, but Jupiter can differ by tens of minutes. Compare only after matching ayanamsa, apparent/geometric coordinate choices, offset, and sunrise-day versus civil-day notation.
Related calendars and references
The Moon transit calendar follows rashi and nakshatra changes for a chosen month. The Sankranti calendar follows the sidereal Sun. Neither is a substitute for an individual natal transit reading. Source lists for the five grahas: Budha, Shukra, Mangala, Guru, and Shani. They provide a useful independent comparison of sequence, date, and local clock notation.