2026 Budha Asta

Prev YearCurrent YearNext Year Share

Combustion of a planet is a significant event in Vedic astrology — for a period each year a planet becomes too close to the Sun to be observed; this is Asta (or Lopa). Auspicious ceremonies, especially marriage, are traditionally avoided during the combustion of Venus and Jupiter.

Method used on this page (Deeptaunsha / fixed-orb Asta): a planet is treated as combust whenever its geocentric angular separation from the Sun falls below a fixed threshold — Mars 17°, Mercury 12–14°, Venus 8–10°, Jupiter 11°, Saturn 15° (tighter while retrograde), the classical orbs. This is a different, equally traditional method from heliacal-visibility based Tara Asta calculations (used by some other panchangs), which instead model when a planet actually becomes invisible/visible from a given location — accounting for altitude, brightness and atmosphere, not just angular distance. The two methods can give noticeably different start/end dates for the same planet and year.