1 Ceres's 4.6-year orbit around the Sun will carry it to its furthest point to the Sun – its aphelion – at a distance of 2.98 AU.
In practice, however, 1 Ceres's orbit is very close to circular; its distance from the Sun only varies by about 17.3% 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 aphelion it will be visible in the morning sky, becoming accessible around 00:05, when it reaches an altitude of 21° above your south-eastern horizon. It will then reach its highest point in the sky at 02:51, 34° above your southern horizon. It will be lost to dawn twilight around 05:03, 26° above your south-western horizon.
A chart of the path of 1 Ceres across the sky in 1997 can be found here, and a chart of its rising and setting times here.
The position of 1 Ceres at the moment it passes aphelion will be:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| 1 Ceres | 23h11m20s | 21°20'S | Aquarius | 7.9 | 0.0" |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 24 Dec 2025
| The sky on 24 December 2025 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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27% 5 days old |
All times shown in PST.
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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
| 29 May 1996 | – 1 Ceres at opposition |
| 29 Aug 1997 | – 1 Ceres at opposition |
| 28 Nov 1998 | – 1 Ceres at opposition |
| 21 Mar 2000 | – 1 Ceres at opposition |
Image credit
© NASA/Dawn 2015