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 South El Monte, at the moment of perihelion it will be visible in the evening sky, becoming accessible around 18:15 (PDT), 18° above your eastern horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. It will then reach its highest point in the sky at 22:53, 58° above your southern horizon. It will continue to be observable until around 04:22, when it sinks below 7° above your western horizon.
A chart of the path of Jupiter across the sky in 2046 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 | 00h40m30s | 2°37'N | Cetus | -2.9 | 47.7" |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 17 Mar 2026
| The sky on 17 March 2026 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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0% 28 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
| 06 Oct 2046 | – Jupiter at opposition |
| 03 Dec 2046 | – Jupiter ends retrograde motion |
| 14 Sep 2047 | – Jupiter enters retrograde motion |
| 12 Nov 2047 | – Jupiter at opposition |
Image credit
© NASA/Cassini