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 Cambridge, at the moment of perihelion it will become visible at around 19:07 (EDT), 10° above your western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. It will then sink towards the horizon, setting 1 hour and 19 minutes after the Sun at 20:09.
A chart of the path of Jupiter across the sky in 2011 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 | 00h42m00s | 3°20'N | Pisces | -2.1 | 32.7" |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 2 May 2024
| The sky on 2 May 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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32% 24 days old |
All times shown in EDT.
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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 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 Nov 2010 | – Jupiter ends retrograde motion |
| 30 Aug 2011 | – Jupiter enters retrograde motion |
| 28 Oct 2011 | – Jupiter at opposition |
| 25 Dec 2011 | – Jupiter ends retrograde motion |
Image credit
© NASA/Cassini