Jupiter's 11.9-year orbit around the Sun will carry it to its closest point to the Sun – its perihelion – at a distance of 4.95 AU.
In practice, however, Jupiter's orbit is very close to circular; its distance from the Sun only varies by about 10.2% 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 Jupiter
Jupiter's distance from the Sun doesn't affect its appearance. From South El Monte, at the moment of perihelion it will not be observable – it will reach its highest point in the sky during daytime and will be no higher than 3° above the horizon at dawn.
A chart of the path of Jupiter across the sky in 2177 can be found here, and a chart of its rising and setting times here.
The position of Jupiter at the moment it passes perihelion will be:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| Jupiter | 01h10m10s | 6°16'N | Pisces | -2.0 | 32.6" |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 14 Aug 2026
| The sky on 14 August 2026 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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11% 3 days old |
All times shown in PDT.
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Warning
Never attempt to point a pair of binoculars or a telescope at an object close to the Sun. Doing so may result in immediate and permanent blindness.
Source
The circumstances of this event were computed using the DE440 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
| 17 Nov 2176 | – Jupiter ends retrograde motion |
| 28 Aug 2177 | – Jupiter enters retrograde motion |
| 27 Oct 2177 | – Jupiter at opposition |
| 24 Dec 2177 | – Jupiter ends retrograde motion |
Image credit
© NASA/Cassini