outer-planet year-long recap/look ahead

Event Date: March 19th

Time: various

  I will continue with the planet summary that I started yesterday.  That one included the inner planets with orbits on both sides--for lack of a better word--of ours. This time, I will do so with the outer planets.

Jupiter We will continue to see the king of the gas giants easily for about two more months-worth of weeks with a telescope, before atmospheric pollution makes its features hard to see.  It spends one more month east of the Sun befoe its near-solstice conjunction in late June.  Jupiter continues to pick up speed in prograde motion, and will be near the Gemini border at the time of conjunction, very close to where the Sun is at the June solstice.

Saturn is the only planet in our solar system improving in apparition during the spring, with its opposition coming up next month.  Its rings are still easy to see, despite retrograde motion leading them to tilt very slightly away from our line of sight.  As a result of the excellent tilt this year and the next few, Saturn's opposition magnitudes (brightness-wise) are better than those from much of late last decade.

Uranus and Neptune: spread gradually apart between now and this time next year, as the former moves faster against the stars in its smaller orbit.  Both will become [morning] telescope targets again this summer, when they separate far enough from the Sun and out of the way of twilight.

*Now, for anyone who wants to count dwarf-Pluto, it will remain almost unchanged from its position last year, in Sagittarius, where it slowly creeps across the archers stars over the next few years.  It is visible in a telescope for a short time between escaping atmospheric pollution and twilight gets in the way.

Once again, here is the celestial path of each planet since the March equinox of last year.  Also, increment markers are again, 10 days apart.  Notice how much closer the markers are as we get further and further outwards towards Neptune.  Unlike the inner planets, the whole year-round path, both prograde and retrograde, is visible.  Jupiter had its retrograde late in the [calendar] year and early this one.  Saturn started out with retrograde and back at it now.  Notice that with the the sharp inclination of Pluto's orbit (not shown so to not interfere with the path), that the change in direction has it at very different ecliptic latitudes while at the same celestial longitudes.  Although the images are zoomed out and this isn't too noticeable, compare it with the other outer planets' paths, and there is a difference.

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