Question 1

How can I tell if Mercury is retrograde right now?

Accepted Answer

The panel at the top answers with the current phase. Retrograde means Mercury's ecliptic longitude is decreasing at this moment, between the station retrograde and the station direct. If it has not reached the station retrograde yet but has passed the degree where it will station direct, it is in the pre-shadow: still moving direct, and the panel shows when the retrograde starts. After the station direct comes the post-shadow, until it returns to the degree of the station retrograde. Outside those spans the motion is plain direct. In 2026 Mercury has three retrogrades: February 26 to March 20, June 29 to July 23, and October 24 to November 13, and on those dates New York and Brasília show the same day.

Question 2

What are the pre-shadow and post-shadow, and how are they computed?

Accepted Answer

They are the stretches where the planet crosses the same piece of sky twice. The pre-shadow starts when it passes, still moving direct, the degree where it will station direct. The post-shadow ends when it returns to the degree where it stationed retrograde. The tool runs an exact longitude search instead of a generic "a few weeks before and after". Example: Mercury's October 2026 retrograde runs from 20°59′ to 5°02′ Scorpio. The pre-shadow starts on October 4, when it crosses 5°02′, and the post-shadow ends on November 30, when it returns to 20°59′. On average each Mercury shadow lasts 17 days and each Pluto shadow 117.

Question 3

Why do the dates differ from one site to another?

Accepted Answer

Almost always it is the time zone. Mercury's station retrograde of October 24, 2026 happens at 07:15 UTC, which is 03:15 in New York and 04:15 in Brasília, the same day. Venus's station direct, on the other hand, happens at 00:20 UTC on November 14, which is still the evening of November 13 in the United States and Brazil. Pages that do not state the time zone end up a day apart. The rest comes from definitions: some lists round the shadow to weeks, and some pages are simply wrong. Here you pick the time zone and see the exact time.

Question 4

How long does each planet's retrograde last?

Accepted Answer

Mercury is retrograde for 20 to 24 days and repeats every 116 days. Venus is retrograde for about 42 days and repeats every 584 days, close to 19 months. Mars is retrograde for 60 to 81 days, every 780 days, close to 26 months. Jupiter takes about 120 days, Saturn 138, Uranus 152, Neptune 158 and Pluto 162, and those five repeat every 12 to 13 months, spending 4 to 5 months retrograde in each cycle. The numbers come from measuring every cycle from 1900 to 2100.

Question 5

How many times a year does Mercury go retrograde?

Accepted Answer

Three or four times. Between 1900 and 2100 the tool finds 633 Mercury retrogrades, one every 116 days on average. The years with four retrogrades are those where the extra cycle fits the calendar, such as 2009, 2016, 2022 and 2029. In 2026 and 2027 there are three in each year.

Question 6

Is retrograde real or an optical illusion?

Accepted Answer

The motion is apparent. Seen from Earth, a planet's position against the background stars moves backward for weeks because Earth and the planet orbit the Sun at different speeds, like a car passing another on the highway that seems to drift backward. The planet never reverses its orbit. Astrology links the period to revisions, delays and reunions, but there is no scientific evidence that Mercury retrograde affects communications or electronics. The tool shows the astronomy, and the interpretation is a symbolic tradition.

Question 7

Do the Sun, the Moon, the nodes and Chiron go retrograde?

Accepted Answer

The Sun and the Moon never go retrograde. The tool covers Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. The mean lunar node always moves backward, so it has no stations. Chiron is not in the ephemeris library used here, so it is left out. The Sun appears only in the ingress list, which shows the days it changes sign.

Question 8

How accurate is it, and what years does it cover?

Accepted Answer

The range is 1900 to 2100. Each station is located within half a second on the computed curve, and the curve agrees with published ephemerides to a few minutes of time and about one arcminute. For Mercury in 2026 and 2027, every date and every degree matches Cafe Astrology in New York time. Positions are shown in arcminutes, in the tropical zodiac.

Question 9

Can a planet change sign and then go back?

Accepted Answer

It can, and the ingress list shows it, marking the return as retrograde. In 2027 Mercury enters Aquarius on January 13 and Pisces on February 1. During the retrograde it moves back into Aquarius on February 18 and returns to Pisces on March 18 (dates in UTC). Saturn did the same in 2025: it entered Aries on May 25, moved back into Pisces on September 1 and returned to Aries on February 14, 2026 (also in UTC).

Question 10

How do I use the .ics file and the link?

Accepted Answer

The button downloads an .ics file with one event for each retrograde of the year and, if the switch is on, one for each shadow. Times are stored in UTC, and Google Calendar, Apple Calendar and Outlook convert them to your time zone. There is a button for the chosen planet and another with every planet of the year. The copied link stores planet, year and, if you changed it, the time zone. Without a time zone in the link, whoever opens it sees the times in their own zone.

Mercury Retrograde and Planetary Retrogrades