© NASA/Cassini

Jupiter ends retrograde motion

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Outer Planets feed

Objects: Jupiter
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Jupiter will reach the end of its retrograde motion, ending its westward movement through the constellations and returning to more usual eastward motion instead. This reversal of direction is a phenomenon that all the solar system's outer planets periodically undergo, a few months after they pass opposition.

The retrograde motion is caused by the Earth's own motion around the Sun. As the Earth circles the Sun, our perspective changes, and this causes the apparent positions of objects to move from side-to-side in the sky with a one-year period. This nodding motion is super-imposed on the planet's long-term eastward motion through the constellations.

The diagram below illustrates this. The grey dashed arrow shows the Earth's sight-line to the planet, and the diagram on the right shows the planet's apparently movement across the sky as seen from the Earth:


The retrograde motion of a planet in the outer solar system. Not drawn to scale.

2023 apparition of Jupiter

04 Sep 2023 – Jupiter enters retrograde motion
01 Nov 2023 – Jupiter at perigee
02 Nov 2023 – Jupiter at opposition
30 Dec 2023 – Jupiter ends retrograde motion

Observing Jupiter

Jupiter leaves retrograde motion as its 2023 apparition comes to an end, although it will remain visible for some weeks in the dusk sky.

Its celestial coordinates as it leaves retrograde motion will be:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude Angular Size
Jupiter 02h13m20s 12°08'N Aries -2.6 43.1"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

From Seattle , it will be visible in the evening sky, becoming accessible around 16:47 (PDT), 38° above your south-eastern horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. It will then reach its highest point in the sky at 19:45, 54° above your southern horizon. It will continue to be observable until around 01:51, when it sinks below 7° above your western horizon.

Begin typing the name of a town near to you, and then select the town from the list of options which appear below.

Over the following weeks, Jupiter will reach its highest point in the sky four minutes earlier each night, gradually disappearing into evening twilight.

The sky on 30 Dec 2023

The sky on 30 December 2023
Sunrise
07:55
Sunset
16:25
Twilight ends
18:18
Twilight begins
06:02

18-day old moon
Waning Gibbous

80%

18 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 06:31 11:00 15:29
Venus 04:51 09:30 14:08
Moon 19:02 02:59 10:39
Mars 07:08 11:16 15:24
Jupiter 12:47 19:45 02:43
Saturn 10:44 15:54 21:03
All times shown in PST.

Source

The circumstances of this event were computed using the DE430 planetary ephemeris published by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

This event was automatically generated by searching the ephemeris for planetary alignments which are of interest to amateur astronomers, and the text above was generated based on an estimate of your location.

Related news

30 Dec 2023  –  Jupiter ends retrograde motion
08 Oct 2024  –  Jupiter enters retrograde motion
07 Dec 2024  –  Jupiter at opposition
04 Feb 2025  –  Jupiter ends retrograde motion

Image credit

© NASA/Cassini

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