Earthsky.org, 11/7/13, Larry Sessions
If you stay up until mid-evening on November 7 – or get up before sunrise on November 8 – you can catch the dazzling planet Jupiter at a turning point in the year. Jupiter is said to appear stationary in front of the constellation Gemini the Twins, beginning on November 7, as it begins its retrograde motion in front of the stars. In astronomy, the start of retrograde motion of an outer planet like Jupiter always means the planet is soon to be at its best in our sky, in this case in early 2014. It happens when that planet seems to stop and then change its normal eastward direction of motion in front of the background stars.
