Saturn will enter retrograde motion,
halting its usual eastward movement through the
constellations, and turning to move westwards instead.
This reversal of direction is a phenomenon that all the solar system’s
outer planets periodically undergo, a few months before they reach
opposition.

The retrograde motion is caused by the Earth’s own motion around the Sun.
As the Earth circles the Sun, our perspective changes, and this causes the apparent positions of objects to
move from side-to-side in the sky with a one-year period. This nodding motion is super-imposed on the planet’s
long-term eastward motion through the constellations.

The diagram below illustrates this. The grey dashed arrow shows the Earth’s sight-line
to the planet, and the diagram on the right shows the planet’s apparently movement across the sky as seen from
the Earth:

The retrograde motion of a planet in the outer solar system.
Not drawn to scale.

2025 apparition of Saturn

Observing Saturn

Saturn enters retrograde motion as its 2025 apparition
gets underway, although it has already been visible for some weeks in the pre-dawn sky.

Its celestial coordinates as it enters retrograde motion will be:

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

From Los Angeles , it will be visible in the dawn sky, rising at 23:40 (PDT) and reaching an altitude of 53° above the southern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 05:11.