Mars retrograde – · 81 days
Mars
Mars retrograde 1980: dates
Mars goes retrograde about every 26 months for roughly two months; with its shadows the whole process can stretch over half a year.
Times for UTC
Events are calculated from Earth's center and happen at the same moment everywhere. Set your location to see the times in your own time zone.
—until retrograde
Direct now
Mars is direct
No retrograde coming up soon.
Mars in 19801 retrograde
Virgo 15° → Leo 25°
RetrogradeShadow
Themes
EnergyActionCompetitionAnger
New ventures move slowly while Mars is retrograde; turn energy inward, review the plan and look after your body.
Mars retrograde periods in 1980
Times shown in: UTCShadow periods are the dates when the planet first and last crosses the degrees where its retrograde begins and ends.
Frequently asked questions
When is Mars retrograde in 1980?
January 16, 1980 – April 6, 1980 (15° Virgo → 25° Leo)
How often does Mars go retrograde?
About every twenty-six months, for two to three months.
What is Mars retrograde good for?
Finishing unfinished work, strengthening plans and settling old disputes calmly.
Surgery and sport during the retrograde?
Tradition suggests scheduling elective procedures outside the retrograde if possible; there is no scientific basis for this.
Mars describes action, courage, competition and anger. During the retrograde that energy turns inward: things slow down, and an old dispute or an unfinished goal can return.
The classic advice is to postpone new, risky ventures, strengthen the plans you already have and watch out for physical fatigue.
What is Mars retrograde?
Mars is the first planet beyond Earth's orbit, and its retrograde is the clearest example of Earth overtaking a slower neighbour. Earth and Mars line up on the same side of the Sun about every 780 days, a little over two years and two months. As Earth catches up and passes, Mars seems to stop, loop backward for around two to two and a half months, and then resume its usual course. The exact length varies from one retrograde to the next, because Mars's orbit is noticeably elongated and the geometry of each overtaking is slightly different.
The middle of every Mars retrograde coincides with opposition: Earth sits directly between the Sun and Mars, so Mars rises at sunset, stays up all night and is at or near its closest approach to Earth. This is when Mars is brightest, glowing a strong orange-red that can outshine every star in the night sky. At favourable oppositions, which come around every 15 to 17 years when Mars is also near the closest point of its orbit to the Sun, it is especially brilliant. Astrologically, it is fitting that the planet of drive and heat is at its most conspicuous just when its forward motion stalls.
How the dates on this page are calculated
The page tracks the apparent geocentric longitude of Mars in the tropical zodiac and its daily speed. The retrograde station is the moment the speed turns negative and the direct station the moment it turns positive again; both are found by scanning and refined by bisection to under a second, then listed with sign and degree.
The shadow follows the same degree rule as on every retrograde page: the pre-shadow starts when Mars first reaches the degree where it will later turn direct, and the post-shadow ends when it climbs back to the degree where it turned retrograde. Since Mars moves slowly around its stations, each shadow commonly lasts about two months, so pre-shadow, retrograde and post-shadow together cover roughly half a year. Times are calculated in UTC and shown in the time zone you choose.
How to read it: the long stay in one sign
In a normal stretch, Mars moves through a sign in about six to eight weeks. In a retrograde period it can stay in the same sign for six or seven months, or shuttle back and forth across a sign boundary. That long stay is one of the most important things to notice on this page. The sign of the retrograde becomes the backdrop for a whole season, and the houses of your chart that sign occupies are where astrologers expect old ambitions, unfinished efforts or simmering conflicts to come back for review.
Successive Mars retrogrades move steadily around the zodiac. Each one falls roughly a sign and a half to two signs further on than the previous one, and after about 15 or 17 years the retrogrades return to nearly the same area. Compare the stations listed for 1980 with where Mars was retrograde two years earlier, then open the related sign meanings to see how Mars acts in that sign. The live status ring shows whether Mars is in its shadow, retrograde or direct, with a countdown to its next turning point.
Frequently asked questions
Why is Mars so bright during its retrograde?
Because the retrograde is centred on opposition, when Earth passes Mars and the distance between them is at its smallest. Mars can then be several times brighter than it is when it lies on the far side of the Sun. Its exact brightness depends on how close that particular opposition is.
Why are some Mars retrogrades longer than others?
Mars's orbit is fairly eccentric, so the distance at opposition and Mars's own orbital speed vary from one retrograde to the next. As a result, the backward arc can range from roughly ten to about twenty degrees, and the duration from about two months to around eleven weeks.
Can a Mars retrograde span two signs?
Yes. If the retrograde station falls in the early degrees of a sign or the backward arc is long, Mars can back into the previous sign and return later. This page lists the sign of each station separately, so you can see when that happens.
Where will the next Mars retrograde fall?
Roughly a sign and a half to two signs further along the zodiac than the current one, about 26 months later. The pattern is regular enough that the same region of the zodiac hosts a Mars retrograde again after about 15 or 17 years.