Jupiter constellation back-and-forth

Event Date: April 6th
Time: 7:30 PM

Brief

   Yesterday, I showed Mars' celestial path, as it is coming to the end of its retrograde period of motion, and soon to go prograde again, west to east against the stars.  For Jupiter, it encountered retrograde between late summer and late fall on either side of its October opposition.  As we are about to lose Jupiter into the Sun's glare, we can see how its difference in distance between the Sun has led to it covering alot less sky compared to Mars.  Jupiter is over 400 million miles away from the Sun, compared to Mars, which is about one-third the distance closer, with a mean distance of 142 million miles.  Remember that the mean distance is the average of a planet's distance at perihelion and aphelion.

Detailed

   As the image below shows, I am still using increment markers of 10 days.  Jupiter's section of sky is shown 2x zoomed-in, so the markers can be seen more easily near stationary dates.  The planet moved from the constellation of Pisces The Fish into Aries The Ram last year, retrograded back to Pisces for a very brief time, and then prograde back into Aries.  As it has done so, it is doing the opposite of what Mars is: moving north fast.  Remember yesterday when I showed Mars moving among the stars of Leo?  In retrograde, Mars moved further north, but when it goes prograde again, it will move south quickly.  It is moving along the same part of the sky that the Sun moves in late Summer, whereas Jupiter is moving where the Sun does in early-mid spring.   In the image also, I show the constellations of Pisces and Aires' stick figures.  The ecliptic and celestial equator both show, illustrating that Jupiter is still far enough north of the setting Sun.  Despite reaching conjunction in about five weeks, Jupiter is still setting a little over two hours after the Sun this evening, far enough north.  Jupiter moves slightly in Aries each day, a bit further north to stay ahead of the Sun for only so long.  The boundaries of Aries and Pisces are shown, to indicate the small number of days that Jupiter is back in eastern Pisces.

*click on images to enlarge: courtesy of Starry Night Pro Plus, version 6.4.3, by Simulation Curriculum Corp.