What's retrograde right now
At the time of writing (1 October 2026), four planets appear to move backwards: Saturn in Aries, Uranus in Gemini, Neptune in Aries and Pluto in Aquarius — the familiar outer-planet quartet that stations each mid-year and turns direct around the October equinox. Mercury and Venus are direct, as they spend most of the year.
That is the ordinary sky, not an anomaly. Every planet outside Earth's orbit stations retrograde once per year near opposition (when Earth passes between it and the Sun), and the slow ones then take another bite a few months later around their solar conjunction — Pluto is retrograde for over five months of every year. There is no 'Mercury-only' universe: at most moments, four to six planets are backward at once.
How we detect a retrograde
For each planet we evaluate the apparent geocentric ecliptic longitude from the VSOP87 ephemeris day by day. The planet is listed retrograde wherever its daily motion is negative, and the window's endpoints are the two station days where the sign of that motion flips. The live grid uses the same ephemeris at the current instant.
Detection is to the day, in UTC. A planet stations at an instant, so sources casting tables in other time zones can print a station one day apart from ours — the underlying flip is identical. Sun and Moon are excluded by definition: geocentrically they never move backwards.
What you get
The tool has two layers, needing no birth data or inputs at all:
- A live status grid: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto with current sign and degree, a retrograde badge when active, and each one's next station date.
- A year selector (2025–2045) with a station table per planet: every window's start and end dates, duration in days, and the signs it stations retrograde and direct in.
- Per-planet year totals — how many periods and how many days each planet spent backward in the chosen year.
- 'In progress' flags so the tables and the live grid always agree with each other.
How astrologers actually use this
In traditional and Hellenistic practice a retrograde planet is not weakened — the perigee theory of Ibn Ezra and others even treats retrogradation as a planet at its most potent, and Mars retrograde explicitly 'rejoices' in the classical texts. Modern columns inverted that into a disruption warning about a century ago. Both readings are symbolic choices, not observations.
The technically interesting part is what retrograde means for timing. A backward outer planet re-crosses whatever natal degree it's sitting on up to three times per season (forward, back over it, forward again), which is why predictive work weights the stations. The grid and tables here give you those exact re-crossing windows for every planet, which is the same information the transits tools consume.
A worked example: October 2026, and a chart from 2000
On 1 October 2026 the grid lights up amber for exactly four planets: Saturn in Aries, Uranus in Gemini, Neptune in Aries and Pluto in Aquarius. Their direct stations come one after another through October: Saturn on the 9th, Uranus on the 23rd, Pluto on the 29th, Neptune on 20 November, the opposition-season cluster sitting just after the autumn equinox by geometry.
Set the year table to 2026 and the same arithmetic spreads across the planets: Mercury loops three times (its usual 21-day seasons), Venus once (4 October – 15 November), while the outer quartet each log their single long backward season. For contrast, the same engine at 1 January 2000 shows only Saturn retrograde — proof the 'how many are backward' answer swings from one to six through the year, entirely by orbital mechanics.
What this tool does not claim
Retrogradation is appearance, not event: no planet reverses, and the effect is pure perspective from planets orbiting at different speeds — Copernicus used exactly this to place the planets. Claims that retrograde planets emit changed influence have no controlled support (see Carlson 1985 below).
The Sun and Moon are omitted from the grids by design (they never appear retrograde from Earth). All computation runs locally in your browser; this page collects no data at all. Station instants are UTC-dated; watch the one-day edge cases near midnight if you compare against local-time tables.
This overview vs the single-planet tools
Use this page for the simultaneous picture — what the whole retrograde sky looks like today and in any coming year. The dedicated Mercury Retrograde and Venus Retrograde tools go deeper on their planets' lore, and add the optional natal-house overlay. The Moon Phases and Eclipse calendars cover the two luminary cycles that never go retrograde.
Our method in one line
Daily apparent geocentric longitudes from sub-arcsecond astronomy (VSOP87/ELP via astronomy-engine) across the scanned span; a planet is retrograde exactly where the daily motion is negative, stations at the sign flips. Reviewed by Dr. Amara Osei, Astronomy Reviewer.
Step by step
- 1
Glance at the live grid
Eight planets, current sign and degree, amber badge if backward now, and the next station date for everything that is direct.
- 2
Pick a year
2025 to 2045 — each planet gets its own table of windows with dates, durations and station signs, plus a yearly total.
- 3
Spot the clusters
Outer-planet stations bunch near the same weeks each year (opposition season); inner-planet seasons march through Mercury's three-to-four-per-year rhythm.
- 4
Go deeper per planet
From a window that matters to you, jump to the Mercury or Venus tool for the house-level overlay, or to your natal chart for the degrees involved.
Tip — A planet that is retrograde now has already crossed its station degree once and will cross it again when it turns direct — the 'three passes' pattern is why natal-degree transits get re-emphasised for months.
Frequently asked questions
- How many planets can be retrograde at once?
- From zero to six in principle, and typically two to five. Only Mercury through Pluto can appear backward from Earth; the further out the planet, the longer its daily share of retrogradation — Pluto spends about 40% of every year retrograde, while Mercury manages three short seasons. On 1 January 2000 only one planet (Saturn) was backward; on 1 October 2026 there are four.
- Why are the Sun and Moon never retrograde?
- Because the zodiac itself is defined by the Sun's apparent yearly path, and the Moon always chases it eastward — from Earth the two luminaries never reverse. Retrogradation is a property of the planets as seen against the Sun's road, so the question doesn't arise for them.
- Is a retrograde planet weaker?
- Ask a medieval astrologer and the answer was often no — retrograde planets were considered strong or unalloyed in several classical traditions, and Mars is explicitly said to rejoice retrograde. The modern 'weakened, disruptive' reading is a recent inversion. Either way it is interpretive tradition; the ephemeris just reports an apparent motion.
- Why do outer planets station in the same weeks every year?
- Because a planet stations retrograde when Earth passes it — near its opposition — and oppositions of a given planet recur around the same calendar dates annually (that's just Earth's orbit repeating). That's why each year has a built-in 'station season' of backward outer planets in late summer and autumn.
- Is any of this stored or uploaded?
- Calculations run entirely in your browser. Your birth data is never uploaded, never stored on a server, and never shared. This page has no inputs at all: the live grid and every table are computed on the spot from the ephemeris in your browser.
Written by
Elena Marchetti
Founder & Staff Astrologer
Methodology reviewed by
Dr. Amara Osei
Astronomy Reviewer
Published 2026-10-01 · Updated 2026-10-01 · Calculated with sub-arcsecond astronomy (VSOP87/ELP via astronomy-engine)