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 dominates the evening skies as 2024 gets underway, by far the brightest non-lunar object in the constellation of Aries. It is already starting to disappear in the evening twilight when it undergoes a rare conjunction with Uranus; these two planets last met in 2010–2011 and won't be in the same part of the sky again until 2037–2038. Conjunction takes place in mid-May, shortly after Jupiter enters Taurus. The largest of the planets then takes its place in the dawn skies above the eastern horizon. It returns to evening skies in late August, eventually reaching opposition in early December.

All times and dates are in UT. Positions are geocentric apparent places, referred to the true equator and equinox of date.