Which planets are retrograde right now?

As of 19 Oct 2026, 4 planets are retrograde. The first table on this page gives each planet's motion and the dates of its current, latest or next retrograde, so the whole picture reads in one place.

A station falls at 24 Oct 2026, 07:15 UTC, when Mercury turns retrograde. A station is the moment a planet's apparent motion changes direction. The tables show the dates on both sides of it.

Each row gives the station that starts the retrograde and the station that ends it. The Motion column names a planet that is in its shadow. The shadow periods are the stretches before and after, when the planet covers the same ground while moving direct.

Nothing on this page forecasts what a day will bring. It is a dated record of apparent motion, the kind of table an ephemeris holds. Read it for the dates and leave the meaning to the reader.

The calendar runs from 19 Oct 2026 to 19 Oct 2028. It lists every retrograde window that starts or ends inside that span, so an entry that began before the pin can still appear with its own dates.

Each entry gives the station that starts the retrograde and the station that ends it, with the sign and degree of each. Times are in UTC, and your own zone appears beside each once the page loads.

Use the calendar as a reading list rather than a timetable. A window shows when a planet's apparent path turns. It does not tell you what to do with that turn, and the reader decides that.

The calendar is rebuilt each week from the same ephemeris, so its entries stay accurate as the sky moves on. For the reasons behind the motion, see the retrograde explainer.

A planet does not reverse its orbit. It keeps moving in the same direction around the Sun the whole time. What changes is how it looks from Earth, and Earth is moving too.

Earth travels around the Sun faster than the outer planets do, so it passes them. While it passes, a planet seems to slide backwards against the background stars. When the line between Earth and the planet changes again, the planet resumes its usual direction.

The two planets nearest the Sun work differently, because they orbit inside Earth's path. They move faster than Earth and pass it. From Earth, that pass also looks like a reversal, and the table treats it the same way.

The shadow period is the stretch on either side of a retrograde. The planet is moving direct throughout, over the same stretch of sky that the retrograde covers, either just before or just after it. The Motion column of the table names a planet that is in its pre-shadow or post-shadow.

The retrograde is apparent only. Nothing in the planet's motion changes, and no force reverses it. The calendar shows the sign and degree under each date so that a reader can check a window against the sky instead of against memory. For Mercury the record reads: Mercury stays in Scorpio from the station to the direct turn. For Venus it reads: Venus stations in Scorpio and turns direct in Libra.

A line like that says where a window sits. When a station and its direct turn fall in one sign, the line says so, and when they fall in two signs it names both. Read it with the dates.

Some readers of the sky treat these windows as periods of review. This page reports the motion, its dates and its signs, and it leaves the reading to the person who opens it. What a reader makes of a window is up to them.

Mercury turns retrograde more often than any other planet, and its windows are short. Venus turns less often, and its windows run longer. The outer planets turn retrograde about once a year or less, and their windows last for months rather than weeks.

The notes below follow the planets in order from the Sun outward. Each note draws on the calendar above, and each one describes how often its planet turns and how long it stays in retrograde.