Mercury Retrograde 2026: Ends Nov. 13 at About 11 a.m. ET, With Every Date and Time Through 2027

Mercury is in retrograde now and turns direct at about 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, according to our calculation from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Horizons System. The current period began about 3 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on Saturday, Oct. 24, and lasts 20 days. Below are all six periods for 2026 and 2027 in Eastern Time (ET) and Pacific Time (PT), and a printable list to keep.

This is an astronomy story. Retrograde describes where Mercury appears against the stars, and nothing more here.

What does Mercury retrograde mean?

Mercury retrograde is an apparent backward drift of Mercury, westward against the background stars as seen from Earth. NASA’s “Mercury: Facts” page says Mercury “speeds around the Sun every 88 days, traveling through space at nearly 29 miles (47 kilometers) per second, faster than any other planet.” Because Mercury circles the Sun faster than Earth does, it periodically catches up with Earth and passes between Earth and the Sun. During that pass, our line of sight makes Mercury seem to reverse direction for a few weeks. It never stops orbiting the Sun in the same direction.

A “station” is the moment the apparent motion changes from eastward to westward (retrograde station) or back (direct station). Our times are those stations.

When is Mercury retrograde in 2026 and 2027?

Mercury has three retrograde periods in 2026 and three in 2027. Daylight saving time ends on Nov. 1, 2026, so the end of the current period falls on Eastern Standard Time.

Period	Retrograde starts (ET)	Retrograde starts (PT)	Retrograde ends (ET)	Retrograde ends (PT)	Days
2026, first	Thu., Feb. 26, about 2 a.m. EST	Wed., Feb. 25, about 11 p.m. PST	Fri., Mar. 20, about 4 p.m. EDT	Fri., Mar. 20, about 1 p.m. PDT	22
2026, second	Mon., June 29, about 2 p.m. EDT	Mon., June 29, about 11 a.m. PDT	Thu., July 23, about 7 p.m. EDT	Thu., July 23, about 4 p.m. PDT	24
2026, third (now)	Sat., Oct. 24, about 3 a.m. EDT	Sat., Oct. 24, about midnight PDT	Fri., Nov. 13, about 11 a.m. EST	Fri., Nov. 13, about 8 a.m. PST	20
2027, first	Tue., Feb. 9, about 1 p.m. EST	Tue., Feb. 9, about 10 a.m. PST	Wed., Mar. 3, about 8 a.m. EST	Wed., Mar. 3, about 5 a.m. PST	22
2027, second	Thu., June 10, about 2 p.m. EDT	Thu., June 10, about 11 a.m. PDT	Sun., July 4, about 4 p.m. EDT	Sun., July 4, about 1 p.m. PDT	24
2027, third	Thu., Oct. 7, about 11 a.m. EDT	Thu., Oct. 7, about 8 a.m. PDT	Thu., Oct. 28, about 10 a.m. EDT	Thu., Oct. 28, about 7 a.m. PDT	21

The first 2026 period starts at 07:00 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on Feb. 26, which is still the evening of Feb. 25 on the Pacific coast. Days are counted between the two station dates in Eastern Time. Mark the dates on a November 2026 printable calendar or lay out next year on a 2027 printable yearly calendar.

Is Mercury in retrograde right now?

Yes. As of Thu., Oct. 29, 2026, Mercury is between its Oct. 24 and Nov. 13 stations. In that time its ecliptic longitude, the position measured along the Sun’s path through the sky, goes from about 231.0 degrees back to about 215.0 degrees. That is a drift of about 16 degrees, roughly 32 full-Moon widths, since the full Moon is about half a degree wide.

What happens in the sky during this retrograde?

Two dates fall inside or just after the current period, both from the same Horizons table:

Date	Event	What to know
Wed., Nov. 4, 2026, about 10 a.m. EST (7 a.m. PST)	Inferior conjunction	Mercury is between Earth and the Sun, about 0.4 degrees from the Sun, and cannot be observed
Fri., Nov. 20, 2026, about 6 p.m. EST (3 p.m. PST)	Greatest western elongation	Mercury is 19.6 degrees from the Sun; look for it before sunrise in the days that follow

Mercury turns direct on Nov. 13, a week before it is farthest from the Sun in the morning sky. For the other planets and the Moon that month, see our November 2026 night sky calendar and the November 2026 meteor shower guide. Looking further ahead, the 2027 eclipse dates and times are also computed.

How were these times calculated?

We used the NASA JPL Horizons System: an observer table for Mercury (target 199) from Earth’s center, with observer ecliptic longitude at 1-hour steps, computed by Fresh Calendars on Oct. 29, 2026. A station is the hour in which the daily change in ecliptic longitude switches sign. Times are rounded to the hour, so published almanac times can differ from ours by an hour or so. The Mercury figures on speed come from NASA’s Mercury: Facts page.