Uranus's 84.1-year orbit around the Sun will carry it to its closest point to the Sun – its perihelion – at a distance of 18.29 AU.
In practice, however, Uranus's orbit is very close to circular; its distance from the Sun only varies by about 9.9% 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 Uranus
Uranus'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 morning sky, becoming accessible around 01:03, when it reaches an altitude of 20° above your eastern horizon. It will then reach its highest point in the sky at 05:30, 58° above your southern horizon. It will be lost to dawn twilight around 05:40, 58° above your southern horizon.
A chart of the path of Uranus across the sky in 2134 can be found here, and a chart of its rising and setting times here.
The position of Uranus at the moment it passes perihelion will be:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| Uranus | 11h42m10s | 2°45'N | Virgo | 5.4 | 3.9" |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 12 Jul 2026
| The sky on 12 July 2026 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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1% 28 days old |
All times shown in PDT.
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Source
The circumstances of this event were computed using the DE440 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
| 25 May 2134 | – Uranus ends retrograde motion |
| 01 Jan 2135 | – Uranus enters retrograde motion |
| 15 Mar 2135 | – Uranus at opposition |
| 30 May 2135 | – Uranus ends retrograde motion |
Image credit
© NASA/Voyager 2