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 5.46 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 Fairfield, at the moment of aphelion it will be visible in the morning sky, becoming accessible around 22:43, when it reaches an altitude of 7° above your eastern horizon. It will then reach its highest point in the sky at 03:33, 41° above your southern horizon. It will be lost to dawn twilight around 06:27, 27° above your south-western horizon.
A chart of the path of Jupiter across the sky in 2017 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 | 13h26m20s | 7°28'S | Virgo | -2.3 | 39.9" |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 16 Feb 2017
| The sky on 16 February 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
67% 19 days old |
All times shown in EST.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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
| 06 Feb 2017 | – Jupiter enters retrograde motion |
| 07 Apr 2017 | – Jupiter at opposition |
| 09 Jun 2017 | – Jupiter ends retrograde motion |
| 08 Mar 2018 | – Jupiter enters retrograde motion |
Image credit
© NASA/Cassini