Most transit tools decide the question for you. They take a chart, a period and a list of standard aspects, and show you what they found. Transit Inquiries works the other way round: you describe the transit you are looking for, as precisely as you like, and it searches a minute-by-minute ephemeris from 1900 to 2050 and returns every moment, or every window, that matches.

It is a tool for astrologers and serious students. The form looks simple, but the combinations are many, so here is an overview first and then a few real inquiries.

The two kinds of search

Everything starts with the Transit On selector, which sets the frame of reference.

On a chart. Choose yourself or anyone whose chart is in your list: family, friends, clients, or a celebrity you have added. The search then measures transiting bodies against the points of that chart.

In the Sky. Choose this and there is no natal chart at all. The search looks at the moving bodies on their own: aspects between two transiting planets, ingresses into signs, and retrograde and direct stations.

The dates are free: a start and an end, in the past or the future, anywhere in the ephemeris range.

Searching on a chart

A chart search is built from four parts.

The transiting body. Any of nineteen: the Sun, the Moon, Mercury to Pluto, the True Node, Chiron, Lilith, Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta, Pholus and Eros.

The target. Any of the same nineteen natal points, any of the twelve house cusps (the first is the Ascendant, the tenth the Midheaven), or one of your custom points. The menu shows each target with its position, so you can see exactly what you are aiming at.

The distance. Either a named aspect (conjunction, sextile, square, trine, opposition, semi-sextile, semi-square, sesquiquadrate or quincunx) or any whole-degree distance from 0° to 180°. That second option covers everything the named list does not: 72° for a quintile, 144° for a biquintile, 40° for a novile, or any harmonic you work with. The search finds the distance on both sides of the target, so a 72° search catches the transiting body 72° ahead of the point and 72° behind it.

The orb. Either 0, which means the exact aspect, or a window from 0 up to 12 whole degrees. The widest orb allowed depends on the speed of the transiting body: up to 10° for the Sun, Moon, Mercury and Venus, 8° for Mars, 6° for Jupiter, 4° for Saturn, the Node, Chiron, Lilith, Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta and Eros, and 2° for Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Pholus.

The orb changes the kind of answer you get.

With orb 0, you get a list of exact moments, to the minute, in GMT, each with the position of the transiting body and an R when it is retrograde. A slow planet stationing near your point shows up three times, once for each pass, which is exactly what an astrologer wants to see.

With a wider orb, you get windows instead: the start, the end and the duration of each period during which the transit is within orb, in days, hours and minutes. Orb searches cover a range of years that depends on the planet: 5 years for the Moon, 8 for the Sun, Mercury and Venus, 12 for Eros, 16 for Mars, Lilith and the four main asteroids, 36 for Jupiter, 50 for Chiron, 60 for the Node, 80 for Saturn and Pholus, and 100 for Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Exact searches have no such limit.

Two conditions at once

When the orb is wider than 0, you can add a second search condition and join the two with "and". The second condition has its own transiting body, distance, orb and target on the same chart, and the results are the windows when both are true at the same time.

Custom points

The Custom Points page holds a private list of positions you define yourself: a name, a sign, and degrees, minutes and seconds. Use it for anything the standard calculation does not include: a client's Vertex, a Part of Fortune, the degree of a recent eclipse, a fixed star. Each saved point appears in the target menu of every chart search, whichever chart you choose, because it is a degree of the zodiac, not part of one chart.

Searching in the sky

In the Sky mode answers three kinds of question, always to the exact moment.

Aspects between two moving bodies. Any pair of the nineteen, in conjunction, sextile, square, trine, opposition or quincunx. A planet cannot aspect itself, and the form will tell you if you try.

Ingresses. Any of the nineteen bodies entering any sign.

Stations. The moments a body stations retrograde or direct, listed together. This works for Mercury through Pluto, Chiron, Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta, Pholus and Eros. The Sun and the Moon never station, and the Node and Lilith are not included.

Sky searches take one condition at a time, without an orb.

Reading the results

Each result opens with a chart for its moment. For a chart search it is a bi-wheel, the natal chart inside and the sky outside, with an aspect grid beside it. For a sky search it is a chart of the sky alone. Next to the chart you get the positions of every transiting body at that minute, in GMT, and a table of all the aspects in play with their orbs. In orb searches, the aspects you searched for are listed first, so you can see at once how close each one is.

You can move through the results in several ways. Click any date in the list to jump to it, or use Prev and Next. In orb searches, the wheel can also be moved in time inside each window, forward or back by a minute, an hour, a day, a week, a month or a year, so you can watch the transit build, peak and separate, and the Interval buttons jump to the previous or next window. Click a chart image to see it full size.

If your profile uses a sidereal zodiac, chart searches and ingresses are calculated in your zodiac, so the dates match the positions you see.

Four worked inquiries

Every exact Saturn square to your natal Sun in the next five years. Transit On: yourself. Transiting planet: Saturn. Aspect: square. Orb: 0. Target: natal Sun. Dates: today to five years from today. If Saturn reaches a square in that time, the list shows each exact pass, often three, with the R marking the retrograde one. Open the middle date and check the aspect table for whatever else touches the chart that week.

When Mars crosses the degree of a recent eclipse. On the Custom Points page, add the eclipse degree with its sign, degrees, minutes and seconds, and give it a name you will recognise. Back on the form, choose any chart in your list, then Mars, conjunction, orb 0, and your custom point as the target. You get every crossing in the range, including the extra passes when Mars goes retrograde nearby.

Venus and Jupiter conjunctions in the sky this year. Transit On: In the Sky. Transiting planet: Venus. Aspect: conjunction. Target: Jupiter. The result lists each conjunction to the minute, with both positions and a sky chart for each moment. Switch the target to an ingress or to Retro/Direct for a year of sign changes or stations.

The windows when two transits overlap. Choose a client's chart. First condition: Saturn, square, orb 0 to 2, natal Moon. Add a second condition: Jupiter, trine, orb 0 to 3, natal Venus. Set a ten-year range. The result is a short list of windows, each with a start, an end and a duration, when both are within orb together. Open one and step the wheel day by day to find where both aspects are closest. These windows describe periods when two tendencies coincide, not promises of events.

Saved inquiries and limits

You can save an inquiry under a name and load it again later, with all its conditions, from the Saved Queries menu. A separate page lets you delete the ones you no longer need.

Members can run 5 inquiries in 24 hours, and Premium members 100. To keep the service responsive for everyone, there is also a short pacing limit of 12 inquiries in 10 minutes. The mobile app offers a simpler version of the tool; saved queries, combined conditions and the stepping wheel are on the website.

Ready to ask your own question? Open Transit Inquiries, and if you need a degree that is not on any chart, start by adding it to your custom points.

Frequently asked questions

What date range can I search?
The ephemeris runs from 1900 to 2050. Exact searches can use the whole range. Searches with an orb on a chart are limited by the transiting planet, from 5 years for the Moon to 100 years for the outer planets.

Can I search for aspects that are not in the menu?
Yes. Instead of a named aspect, choose any whole-degree distance from 0° to 180°. This covers quintiles, noviles and any other harmonic aspect, measured on both sides of the target.

What is the difference between orb 0 and a wider orb?
Orb 0 returns the exact moments, to the minute. A wider orb returns windows, with a start, an end and a duration, and allows a second condition and the stepping wheel.

Do I need a birth time?
For transits to planets, no. For house cusps, including the Ascendant and Midheaven, yes, because they depend entirely on the time of birth. Sky searches need no chart at all.

Are the times in my local time?
Results are given in GMT, which is the standard for comparing dates across charts and places. Add or subtract your own offset to read them locally.

How is this different from Upcoming Transits?
Upcoming Transits finds every exact transit to your chart in the next few days, automatically, with a reading for each. Transit Inquiries finds one transit you describe, across any range of years, on any chart or in the sky.