Tuesday, August 25, 2026
These are the live planetary positions right now — shown in both the tropical and sidereal zodiacs.
Last updated: Aug 25, 2026, 5:06 PM UTC
When a planet appears retrograde from Earth's vantage point, its themes turn inward — revisited, refined, reviewed rather than launched fresh. Outer-planet retrogrades (Jupiter through Pluto) are common and last months; faster planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars) signal shorter recalibration windows.
| Planet | Tropical | Sidereal (Lahiri) | True Sidereal | Motion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ☉Sun | Virgo 2°31' | Leo 8°17' | Leo 25°06' | — |
| ☾Moon | Aquarius 4°06' | Capricorn 9°52' | Capricorn 10°36' | — |
| ☿Mercury | Virgo 0°30' | Leo 6°16' | Leo 23°04' | — |
| ♀Venus | Libra 17°55' | Virgo 23°41' | Virgo 32°04' | — |
| ♂Mars | Cancer 9°22' | Gemini 15°09' | Gemini 18°33' | — |
| ♃Jupiter | Leo 12°22' | Cancer 18°08' | Leo 4°57' | — |
| ♄Saturn | Aries 14°00' | Pisces 19°46' | Pisces 31°46' | Rx |
| ♅Uranus | Gemini 5°35' | Taurus 11°21' | Taurus 21°37' | — |
| ♆Neptune | Aries 3°48' | Pisces 9°34' | Pisces 21°34' | Rx |
| ♇Pluto | Aquarius 3°37' | Capricorn 9°24' | Capricorn 10°07' | Rx |
| ⚷Chiron | Taurus 0°39' | Aries 6°25' | Aries 6°25' | Rx |
| ☊True Node | Aquarius 29°50' | Aquarius 5°36' | Aquarius 10°45' | — |
The table above is the sky right now. To see how it actually lands in your own life, drop in your birth time — Synthesis will overlay today's positions against your natal placements.
Each row is one celestial body. The Tropical column shows where that body sits in the season-based zodiac (Aries begins at the spring equinox). The Sidereal Lahiri column shows the same position shifted back by the ayanamsa — the offset that accounts for ~2,200 years of axial precession. Both Western and Vedic systems use this kind of equal-30°-sign zodiac; they just disagree on where Aries starts.
The True Sidereal column maps each planet to the actual star constellation it's currently in front of, using the boundaries the International Astronomical Union published in 1930. This is why True Sidereal has 13 signs — Ophiuchus is a real constellation the Sun passes through every November, even though traditional astrology skips it.
An "Rx" tag means the planet appears retrograde — moving backward against the stars from Earth's vantage point. It's an optical effect, not actual motion, but it's the cleanest astrological signal for "this theme is being revisited, not launched."
The page refreshes every 15 minutes. Planetary positions change slowly (the Moon shifts a fraction of a degree per hour; the outer planets crawl), so any read you take here is good for the rest of the day.
The current planetary positions are the live, calculated locations of the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Chiron and the North Node — measured in degrees within a zodiac sign. Synthesis publishes them in tropical (season-based), Lahiri sidereal (Vedic), and True Sidereal (actual IAU star constellations) so you can compare all three at a glance.
Check the "Currently retrograde" callout near the top of this page — it lists every planet that is moving retrograde at this moment. The list updates automatically. Outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) spend several months retrograde each year; Mercury goes retrograde roughly three times a year for ~3 weeks; Venus and Mars retrograde more rarely.
Tropical astrology starts the zodiac at the spring equinox — it tracks seasons. True sidereal astrology anchors the zodiac to the actual constellations — it tracks the real sky. Because Earth's axis wobbles (precession), the two have drifted apart; against the real constellation boundaries the gap is about 31° today. A planet that's in tropical Gemini today usually sits in true sidereal Taurus.
Every 15 minutes. The positions are computed live from the Swiss Ephemeris (the same astronomical library used by professional astrology software) and cached briefly for performance. Bookmark this page — it stays accurate forever without you doing anything.
Enter your birth date, time and place on the sidereal birth chart calculator — it computes your natal positions and shows how the transits on this page interact with them (conjunctions, squares, trines, oppositions, etc.). The chart itself is free; the written multi-system reading is optional.
Planetary positions are inherently global — they're the same regardless of your time zone. The "last updated" timestamp is shown in UTC; the underlying calculation is done at the exact moment you load (or revalidate) the page.