Jupiter will reach opposition, when it lies opposite to the Sun in the sky. Lying in the constellation Virgo, it will be visible for much of the night, reaching its highest point in the sky around midnight local time.
From Cambridge, it will be visible between 19:55 and 05:45. It will become accessible at around 19:55, when it rises to an altitude of 7° above your eastern horizon. It will reach its highest point in the sky at 00:50, 42° above your southern horizon. It will become inaccessible at around 05:45 when it sinks below 7° above your western horizon.
2017 apparition of Jupiter
| 06 Feb 2017 | – | Jupiter enters retrograde motion |
| 07 Apr 2017 | – | Jupiter at opposition |
| 08 Apr 2017 | – | Jupiter at perigee |
| 09 Jun 2017 | – | Jupiter ends retrograde motion |
A close approach to the Earth
At around the same time that Jupiter passes opposition, it also makes its closest approach to the Earth – termed its perigee – making it appear at its brightest and largest.
This happens because when Jupiter lies opposite to the Sun in the sky, the Earth passes between Jupiter and the Sun. The solar system is lined up with Jupiter and the Earth on the same side of the Sun, as shown by the configuration labelled perigee in the diagram below:
When a planet is at opposition, the solar system is aligned such that the planet
lies on the same side of the Sun as the Earth. At this time, the planet makes its
perigee, or closest approach to the Earth.
Not drawn to scale.
The panels below show a comparison of the apparent size of Jupiter when seen at opposition in 2017, and when it is most distant from the Earth at solar conjunction.
A comparison of the size of Jupiter as seen at 2017 opposition and at solar conjunction.
In practice, however, Jupiter orbits much further out in the solar system than the Earth – at an average distance from the Sun of 5.20 times that of the Earth, and so its angular size does not vary much as it cycles between opposition and solar conjunction.
Observing Jupiter
At opposition, Jupiter is visible for much of the night. When it lies opposite to the Sun in the sky, this means that it rises at around the time the Sun sets, and it sets at around the time the Sun rises. It reaches its highest point in the sky at around midnight local time.
But even when it is at its closest point to the Earth, it is not possible to distinguish it as more than a star-like point of light with the naked eye, though a good pair of binoculars is sufficient to reveal it as a disk of light with accompanying system of moons.
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.
At the moment of opposition, Jupiter will lie at a distance of 4.46 AU, and its disk will measure 43.3 arcsec in diameter, shining at magnitude -2.5. Its celestial coordinates at the moment it passes opposition will be:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| Jupiter | 13h08m50s | 5°36'S | Virgo | -2.5 | 43.3" |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.
Over the weeks following its opposition, Jupiter will reach its highest point in the sky four minutes earlier each night, gradually receding from the pre-dawn morning sky while remaining visible in the evening sky for a few months.
The sky on 7 Apr 2017
| The sky on 7 April 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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91% 10 days old |
All times shown in EDT.
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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
| 07 Apr 2017 | – Jupiter at opposition |
| 09 Jun 2017 | – Jupiter ends retrograde motion |
| 08 Mar 2018 | – Jupiter enters retrograde motion |
| 08 May 2018 | – Jupiter at opposition |
Image credit
© NASA/Cassini