Neptune Retrograde Ends: What Does It Mean?

On Saturday night (3), Neptune begins a process by which its westward motion across the night sky is interrupted, and the star resumes its normal eastward trajectory, completing its retrograde “cycle” – so named because, en route, the planet appears to form a ring in the sky.

This reversal of direction is a phenomenon that all the planets of the Solar System undergo periodically. According to the website In-The-Sky.orgin the case of those whose orbits are most external to the earth’s (Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune), this occurs a few months after crossing opposition, i.e. when they are on the opposite side of the Sun in relation to our planet (located between the two celestial bodies).

Also according to the orientation guide for the night sky, the readjustment of the direction of Saturn, which began its retrograde movement on June 28, will begin at 20:48 (Brasilia time).

The columnist of Marcelo Zurita, president of the Associação Paraibana de Astronomia (APA), member of the Brazilian Astronomical Society (SAB) and technical director of the Brazilian Meteor Observation Network (BRAMON), explains that the retrograde motion of the planets is only illusory and is caused by the course of the Earth around the Sun. As it goes around the sun, our perspective changes and this causes the apparent positions of celestial objects to move from one side of the sky to the other, which is superimposed on the long-term eastward movement of the planet across the sky of constellations.

“Because it is in a more inland and therefore faster orbit, Earth passes Neptune about every 12 months. And when that happens, Neptune appears to walk backwards across the sky for a few days. This happens with all planets with orbits further outside the Earth,” she explained. The farther from the Sun, the more time the planet spends in retrograde motion.

The animation below illustrates this, with the arrow showing the line of sight from Earth to a planet and the diagram on the right showing the object’s apparent movement across the sky from our perspective.

Neptune’s post retrograde ends: what does it mean? first appeared on Look Digital.

Source: Olhar Digital