How Many Planets Are Retrograde in November 2026? Five Until November 13, Then Three
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"How many planets are retrograde right now?" In early November 2026 the answer is five: Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Two of them turn direct within a day of each other in mid-month, and the count drops to three.
The count, day by day (November 2026)
| Dates (UTC) | Planets retrograde | Count |
|---|---|---|
| November 1 – 13 | Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune | 5 |
| November 14 – 30 | Saturn, Uranus, Neptune | 3 |
- Mercury turns direct on November 13, about 15:00 UTC (retrograde since October 24).
- Venus turns direct on November 14, about 00:00 UTC (retrograde since October 3).
- Saturn, Uranus and Neptune stay retrograde through the whole month. Their retrogrades began in July and September and end in December 2026 or later.
- Mars and Jupiter are moving forward all month. Jupiter's next retrograde starts in mid-December 2026.
Why five at once is not as rare as it sounds
The slow outer planets spend a large part of every year retrograde. Over 1980–2009, our engine finds Saturn retrograde 36.5% of the time, Uranus 42.1% and Neptune 43.9%. So three retrograde planets in late autumn is ordinary. What makes this autumn unusual is Mercury and Venus being retrograde together — that overlap is the rarer part (how rare, calculated).
Converting the dates
The two stations fall close to midnight UTC, so the local date can differ: Venus turns direct around 09:00 on November 14 in Seoul, but around 19:00 on November 13 in New York.
What the numbers do and don't tell you
Retrograde motion is an optical effect: the planet does not reverse. It looks that way from Earth because Earth is overtaking it, or being overtaken. Astrology reads retrograde periods as times to review rather than start. That is an interpretation, and this count cannot prove or disprove it. It can tell you which planets appear to move backward, and when that stops.
How we calculated: planetary positions from the public-domain formulas in our chart engine (Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms, and NASA/JPL low-precision orbital elements). A planet is counted as retrograde when its apparent longitude, seen from Earth, decreases over a day; stations were searched hour by hour. Pluto is left out: our engine's Pluto is a smooth approximation that does not reproduce its stations, so we do not report a Pluto retrograde we did not calculate.
- Your full birth chart, free — which planets were retrograde when you were born
- Born during a Mercury retrograde? Every period, 1980–2009
- Mercury retrograde shadow, autumn 2026: when it really ends