SkyEye

The chart shows the path of Jupiter across the background stars over the course of the year. Stars to magnitude +7.5 are shown. The white circles represent the planet on the first day of the month and are scaled according to apparent magnitude. The faint paths before the first circle and after the last circle represent the planet's positions in December of last year and January of next. In general, the planet moves from right to left except when it's in retrograde and proceding in the opposite direction.

The lower chart shows how the appearance of Jupiter changes over the year. Below each image is listed the date, the apparent magnitude, the apparent diameter of the disk (in arc-seconds) and the geocentric distance (in au). Note that Jupiter appears distinctly larger and brighter near the time of opposition.

Jupiter begins the year in Aquarius before moving into Pisces in late April. It spends two and a half months in the non-zodiacal constellation of Cetus during the middle of the year before returning to Pisces in September. An evening sky object at the outset of 2022, Jupiter is at conjunction at the beginning of March, after which it is a morning sky object. It rises before midnight as early as late May for observers in southern latitudes but planet watchers farther north will have to wait another month before the gas giant appears in the east during the evening. Opposition occurs in September, during which the planet is visible all night. For the rest of the year, Jupiter may be observed during the evening hours. Jupiter has a close encounter with the even brighter Venus in early April but outshines Mars a month later.

Sources

The dates, times and circumstances of all planetary and lunar phenomena were calculated from the JPL DE406 solar system ephemeris using the same rigorous methods that are employed in the compilation of publications such as The Astronomical Almanac.