1 Ceres's 4.6-year orbit around the Sun will carry it to its closest point to the Sun – its perihelion – at a distance of 2.55 AU.
In practice, however, 1 Ceres's orbit is very close to circular; its distance from the Sun only varies by about 17.2% between perihelion and aphelion. This means that the difference in the amount of heat and light it receives from the Sun between aphelion and perihelion is extremely small.
Finding 1 Ceres
1 Ceres's distance from the Sun doesn't affect its appearance. From South El Monte, at the moment of perihelion it will become visible at around 19:39 (PDT), 75° above your western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. It will then sink towards the horizon, setting at 02:03.
A chart of the path of 1 Ceres across the sky in 1972 can be found here, and a chart of its rising and setting times here.
The position of 1 Ceres at the moment it passes perihelion will be:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| 1 Ceres | 09h02m00s | 28°39'N | Cancer | 8.3 | 0.0" |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 13 Jul 2025
| The sky on 13 July 2025 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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88% 18 days old |
All times shown in PDT.
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Source
The circumstances of this event were computed using the DE430 planetary ephemeris published by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
This event was automatically generated by searching the ephemeris for planetary alignments which are of interest to amateur astronomers, and the text above was generated based on an estimate of your location.
Related news
| 31 Jan 1972 | – 1 Ceres at opposition |
| 28 May 1973 | – 1 Ceres at opposition |
| 29 Aug 1974 | – 1 Ceres at opposition |
| 27 Nov 1975 | – 1 Ceres at opposition |
Image credit
© NASA/Dawn 2015