Free tool · Retrograde stations
Retrograde Stations: every planet, any year.
The dates on which each planet stations retrograde and stations direct in any year from 1900 to 2100, with the zodiac sign and degree of each station. Choose a planet or view all eight together; Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are covered. The Sun and Moon never retrograde.
Full method, orbs and ephemeris on the methodology page.
A station is the day a planet's apparent motion against the zodiac reverses. Retrograde motion is a line-of-sight effect of Earth overtaking, or being overtaken by, another planet; the planet does not move backwards.
Astrologers give the station degree special weight because the planet lingers there for days. The table lists that degree so it can be compared with a natal chart.
How this is calculated
Geocentric tropical longitudes are computed for each planet from the JPL DE442 ephemeris and scanned through the year for the moments its daily motion changes sign. Each crossing is refined to the day and reported with the planet's sign and degree at that instant. Mercury stations about six times a year, Venus and Mars only every year and a half to two years, and the outer planets twice a year.
Common questions
- What is the shadow period?
- The degrees between the two stations. Before the retrograde station the planet crosses them once; it recrosses them retrograde, then a third time after the direct station. The table gives the two station degrees that bound it.
- Why is a station date different by a day elsewhere?
- The exact station is an instant; sources quote it in different timezones, so dates near midnight shift by a day.
- Which planet is retrograde right now?
- The sky page shows every planet's current motion; this table shows the year's station dates.
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Positions are computed from the JPL DE442 ephemeris in the Tropical zodiac with Placidus houses. Readings are educational, drafted from the computed factors and edited by the Shymea team; they are not the work of a named practising astrologer and are not medical, legal or financial advice. See the editorial policy.