What a transit is
Your birth chart is frozen at one moment. The planets kept moving after that, and they are still moving today. A transit is the relationship between a planet's current position and a point in your natal chart.
When a moving planet forms a major angle to one of your natal planets, astrologers say it is transiting that planet. Transit Jupiter trine your natal Sun, for instance, is traditionally read as a period of encouragement around identity and goals.
How we build today's list
We compute today's positions with Astronomy Engine, then compute your natal positions from your birth time converted to UTC. Each transiting planet is checked against each natal point for the five major aspects: conjunction, sextile, square, trine and opposition.
Only aspects within orb make the list, and each one shows how many degrees it is from exact and whether it is applying (getting closer) or separating (moving apart). The page refreshes its data daily, so coming back tomorrow will show a slightly different set.
Fast transits and slow transits
The Moon moves about 13 degrees a day, so its transits last hours. The Sun, Mercury and Venus stay in contact with a natal point for a few days. Mars contacts last about a week or more.
Jupiter, Saturn and the outer planets move slowly, and with retrograde loops they can stay within orb of one natal point for months. Astrologers give these long transits the most weight and read the quick ones as the daily weather on top of a longer season.
Reading transits without overreacting
A square or opposition from a transiting planet is often described as pressure or a test in a certain area of life, and a trine as ease. These are symbolic readings from tradition, not forecasts. Nothing on this page means an event will or will not happen.
Many people find it more useful to watch a slow transit over its whole span and notice what themes come up. Comparing a few weeks of entries says more than any single day.
Where your natal points come from
Transits to the Ascendant, Midheaven and house cusps need an exact birth time. Without one, the tool still shows transits to your natal planets. To check the natal side first, open your birth chart; for one long Saturn cycle in detail, use the Saturn return calculator; and to track only the Moon, see the Moon sign today.