Saturn's 29.5-year orbit around the Sun will carry it to its closest point to the Sun – its perihelion – at a distance of 9.01 AU.
In practice, however, Saturn's orbit is very close to circular; its distance from the Sun only varies by about 11.5% 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 Saturn
Saturn's distance from the Sun doesn't affect its appearance. From Cambridge, at the moment of perihelion it will be visible in the morning sky, becoming accessible around 19:20, when it reaches an altitude of 9° above your north-eastern horizon. It will then reach its highest point in the sky at 01:53, 69° above your southern horizon. It will be lost to dawn twilight around 06:17, 32° above your western horizon.
A chart of the path of Saturn across the sky in 2032 can be found here, and a chart of its rising and setting times here.
The position of Saturn at the moment it passes perihelion will be:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| Saturn | 06h23m40s | 22°19'N | Gemini | -0.4 | 20.3" |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 24 Nov 2032
| The sky on 24 November 2032 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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45% 21 days old |
All times shown in EST.
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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
| 18 Oct 2032 | – Saturn enters retrograde motion |
| 24 Dec 2032 | – Saturn at opposition |
| 01 Mar 2033 | – Saturn ends retrograde motion |
| 02 Nov 2033 | – Saturn enters retrograde motion |
Image credit
© NASA/Cassini