2017
Mercury was retrograde four times in 2017, for 78 days in all: in Capricorn → Sagittarius in early winter, in Taurus → Aries in mid-spring, in Virgo → Leo in late summer and in Sagittarius in late autumn.
The year wound into a circle, January at the top. Distance from the centre is Mercury’s daily motion; wherever the trace dips inside the zero circle, Mercury is moving backward: four dips, four retrogrades. Each shaded block runs from the station-retrograde day to the station-direct day, both counted, in UTC; the trace is sampled at noon, so it can cross zero a day inside or outside the block.
Four retrogrades
Capricorn → Sagittarius, Taurus → Aries, Virgo → Leo, Sagittarius.
| Station R | Station D | Sign | Shadow in | Shadow out | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Dec 2016 | 8 Jan 2017 | Capricorn → Sagittarius | 2 Dec 2016 | 27 Jan 2017 | 21 |
| 9 Apr 2017 | 3 May 2017 | Taurus → Aries | 27 Mar 2017 | 21 May 2017 | 25 |
| 13 Aug 2017 | 5 Sep 2017 | Virgo → Leo | 24 Jul 2017 | 19 Sep 2017 | 24 |
| 3 Dec 2017 | 23 Dec 2017 | Sagittarius | 15 Nov 2017 | 10 Jan 2018 | 21 |
| Total | 78 |
Every planet in 2017
Ten retrogrades touched 2017 across the eight planets.
One row per planet. The solid band runs from the day of the station retrograde to the day of the station direct, both counted; the hatched band is the shadow on either side, from the day the planet first reaches the degree it will retreat to until the day it passes the degree where it turned. Days are UTC calendar days; a planet’s sign in the readout is its apparent geocentric longitude at noon UTC. Point at the figure, or focus it and use the arrow keys, to read any day.
Computed from the ephemeris and checked against NASA JPL Horizons; times UTC. Every planet’s 2017 windows as data: JSON · CSV · how the dates are computed
Questions
- 01When was Mercury retrograde in 2017?
- Mercury was retrograde December 19, 2016 – January 8 in Capricorn → Sagittarius; April 9 – May 3 in Taurus → Aries; August 13 – September 5 in Virgo → Leo; December 3 – December 23 in Sagittarius (station retrograde to station direct). Each window is bracketed by a pre- and post-shadow period — the full dates are in the table above.
- 02How many retrogrades happened in 2017?
- 10 retrograde windows touched 2017 across the eight planets: Mercury 4×, Venus 1×, Jupiter 1×, Saturn 1×, Uranus 1×, Neptune 1×, Pluto 1×. Because the outer planets are each retrograde for four to five months at a time, some part of the sky was retrograde for most of the year.
- 03Which planets were not retrograde in 2017?
- Mars ran direct all year — its next retrograde started June 26, 2018 in Aquarius.
- 04What is a retrograde shadow period?
- The shadow (or “retroshade”) is the stretch of sky a planet covers three times: once moving forward, once apparently backward, once forward again. The pre-shadow begins when the planet first crosses the degree it will later retrograde back to; the post-shadow ends when it finally re-passes the degree where it first stationed. The ledger above lists both dates for each Mercury window, and the station chart draws the shadow of every planet’s.
Station alerts
A heads-up before every turn.
An email 3 days before the shadow and each station, one when it turns retrograde, and an all‑clear when it goes direct. Plus a note on each Mercury cazimi.
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