2028
Mercury is retrograde three times in 2028, for 70 days in all: in Aquarius in midwinter, in Gemini in late spring and in Libra in early 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: three dips, three 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.
Three retrogrades
Aquarius, Gemini, Libra.
| Station R | Station D | Sign | Shadow in | Shadow out | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Jan 2028 | 14 Feb 2028 | Aquarius | 8 Jan 2028 | 5 Mar 2028 | 22 |
| 21 May 2028 | 14 Jun 2028 | Gemini | 6 May 2028 | 29 Jun 2028 | 25 |
| 19 Sep 2028 | 11 Oct 2028 | Libra | 30 Aug 2028 | 26 Oct 2028 | 23 |
| Total | 70 |
Every planet in 2028
Ten retrogrades touch 2028 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 2028 windows as data: JSON · CSV · how the dates are computed
Questions
When is Mercury retrograde in 2028?
Mercury is retrograde January 24 – February 14 in Aquarius; May 21 – June 14 in Gemini; September 19 – October 11 in Libra (station retrograde to station direct). Each window is bracketed by a pre- and post-shadow period — the full dates are in the table above.
How many retrogrades happen in 2028?
10 retrograde windows touch 2028 across the eight planets: Mercury 3×, Venus 1×, Jupiter 1×, Saturn 1×, Uranus 2×, Neptune 1×, Pluto 1×. Because the outer planets are each retrograde for four to five months at a time, some part of the sky is retrograde for most of the year.
Which planets are not retrograde in 2028?
Mars runs direct all year — its next retrograde starts February 14, 2029 in Libra.
What 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.