Jupiter's 11.9-year orbit around the Sun will carry it to its furthest point to the Sun – its aphelion – at a distance of 5.45 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 aphelion it will become visible at around 19:30 (PDT), 10° above your western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. It will then sink towards the horizon, setting 1 hour and 11 minutes after the Sun at 20:25.
A chart of the path of Jupiter across the sky in 1969 can be found here, and a chart of its rising and setting times here.
The position of Jupiter at the moment it passes aphelion will be:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| Jupiter | 12h36m50s | 2°45'S | Virgo | -1.7 | 30.4" |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 23 Sep 2025
| The sky on 23 September 2025 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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4% 2 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
| 23 May 1969 | – Jupiter ends retrograde motion |
| 19 Feb 1970 | – Jupiter enters retrograde motion |
| 21 Apr 1970 | – Jupiter at opposition |
| 23 Jun 1970 | – Jupiter ends retrograde motion |
Image credit
© NASA/Cassini