Saturn's 29.5-year orbit around the Sun will carry it to its furthest point to the Sun – its aphelion – at a distance of 10.07 AU.
In practice, however, Saturn's orbit is very close to circular; its distance from the Sun only varies by about 11.4% 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 South El Monte, at the moment of aphelion it will be visible in the morning sky, becoming accessible around 22:22, when it reaches an altitude of 9° above your south-eastern horizon. It will then reach its highest point in the sky at 02:20, 33° above your southern horizon. It will be lost to dawn twilight around 05:12, 20° above your south-western horizon.
A chart of the path of Saturn across the sky in 1959 can be found here, and a chart of its rising and setting times here.
The position of Saturn at the moment it passes aphelion will be:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| Saturn | 18h24m40s | 22°22'S | Sagittarius | 0.0 | 18.2" |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 20 May 2026
| The sky on 20 May 2026 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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24% 4 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
| 16 Apr 1959 | – Saturn enters retrograde motion |
| 25 Jun 1959 | – Saturn at opposition |
| 04 Sep 1959 | – Saturn ends retrograde motion |
| 27 Apr 1960 | – Saturn enters retrograde motion |
Image credit
© NASA/Cassini