2030
Mercury is retrograde four times in 2030, for 79 days in all: in Capricorn in early winter, in Taurus → Aries in mid-spring, in Virgo in late summer and in Capricorn → 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, Taurus → Aries, Virgo, Capricorn → Sagittarius.
| Station R | Station D | Sign | Shadow in | Shadow out | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Dec 2029 | 11 Jan 2030 | Capricorn | 4 Dec 2029 | 30 Jan 2030 | 21 |
| 13 Apr 2030 | 6 May 2030 | Taurus → Aries | 30 Mar 2030 | 24 May 2030 | 24 |
| 16 Aug 2030 | 8 Sep 2030 | Virgo | 27 Jul 2030 | 22 Sep 2030 | 24 |
| 6 Dec 2030 | 25 Dec 2030 | Capricorn → Sagittarius | 17 Nov 2030 | 13 Jan 2031 | 20 |
| Total | 79 |
Every planet in 2030
Twelve retrogrades touch 2030 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 2030 windows as data: JSON · CSV · how the dates are computed
Questions
- 01When is Mercury retrograde in 2030?
- Mercury is retrograde December 22, 2029 – January 11 in Capricorn; April 13 – May 6 in Taurus → Aries; August 16 – September 8 in Virgo; December 6 – December 25 in Capricorn → 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 happen in 2030?
- 12 retrograde windows touch 2030 across the eight planets: Mercury 4×, Venus 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.
- 03Which planets are not retrograde in 2030?
- Mars runs direct all year — its next retrograde starts March 29, 2031 in Scorpio.
- 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.
Every year, 2000 to 2035: 2000 · 2001 · 2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006 · 2007 · 2008 · 2009 · 2010 · 2011 · 2012 · 2013 · 2014 · 2015 · 2016 · 2017 · 2018 · 2019 · 2020 · 2021 · 2022 · 2023 · 2024 · 2025 · 2026 · 2027 · 2028 · 2029 · 2031 · 2032 · 2033 · 2034 · 2035