The fuel big Jupiter will seem to reverse course within the night time sky from March 10 onward, bringing an finish to its momentary retrograde movement that started in November 2025, which noticed it journey westward by the celebs of the constellation Gemini.
Below regular circumstances, the outer planets of our photo voltaic system — Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — journey eastward by the night time sky relative to the fastened starfield past. Nevertheless, every of the planets seems to periodically shift course and double again on itself.
This trick of perspective is called retrograde movement, and happens as Earth — touring sooner in its orbit in comparison with the outer planets — catches as much as and overtakes a planet within the interval surrounding opposition, when a planet is reverse the sun in Earth’s sky.
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As Earth passes an outer planet, in this case Jupiter, it appears to first stand still and then travel backwards (westward) relative to the background stars, before eventually returning to its ordinary prograde motion as our planet moves further from the point of opposition.
Jupiter will then continue its regular eastward motion through the evening sky until late June, when it will become temporarily lost from sight ahead of its solar conjunction on Jul. 29. The gas giant will re-emerge as a morning planet in the predawn sky in mid-August and won’t enter retrograde motion again until Dec. 12 later this year, according to in-the-sky.
Wish to get a better take a look at the king of the planets? Then make sure to try our picks of the best telescopes available in 2026along with our equipment guide for seeing and photographing the planets.
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