2029
Mercury is retrograde four times in 2029, for 80 days in all: in Aquarius → Capricorn in early winter, in Taurus in mid-spring, in Libra → Virgo in late summer and in Capricorn in early winter.
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
Aquarius → Capricorn, Taurus, Libra → Virgo, Capricorn.
| Station R | Station D | Sign | Shadow in | Shadow out | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Jan 2029 | 27 Jan 2029 | Aquarius → Capricorn | 21 Dec 2028 | 16 Feb 2029 | 21 |
| 1 May 2029 | 25 May 2029 | Taurus | 17 Apr 2029 | 10 Jun 2029 | 25 |
| 2 Sep 2029 | 25 Sep 2029 | Libra → Virgo | 13 Aug 2029 | 9 Oct 2029 | 24 |
| 22 Dec 2029 | 11 Jan 2030 | Capricorn | 4 Dec 2029 | 30 Jan 2030 | 21 |
| Total | 80 |
Every planet in 2029
Thirteen retrogrades touch 2029 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 2029 windows as data: JSON · CSV · how the dates are computed
Questions
- 01When is Mercury retrograde in 2029?
- Mercury is retrograde January 7 – January 27 in Aquarius → Capricorn; May 1 – May 25 in Taurus; September 2 – September 25 in Libra → Virgo; December 22 – January 11, 2030 in Capricorn (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 happen in 2029?
- 13 retrograde windows touch 2029 across the eight planets: Mercury 4×, Venus 1×, Mars 1×, Jupiter 1×, Saturn 2×, 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.
- 03What 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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