Saturn Stands Still (wee hours)

On Monday morning, July 14, the regular eastward motion of Saturn through the background stars of western Pisces will slow to a stop as it prepares to execute a westerly retrograde loop (red curve) that will last until the end of November. The apparent reversal in Saturn’s motion is an effect of parallax produced when Earth, on a faster orbit closer to the sun, passes the Ringed Planet on the “inside track”. Saturn’s retrograde loop will altogether cover about a palm’s width (or 7 degrees) of the celestial sphere, though there aren’t any bright stars near Saturn to make that motion obvious.