Saturn's 29.5-year orbit around the Sun will carry it to its closest point to the Sun – its perihelion – at a distance of 9.03 AU.
In practice, however, Saturn's orbit is very close to circular; its distance from the Sun only varies by about 11.4% 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 Saturn
Saturn's distance from the Sun doesn't affect its appearance. From South El Monte, at the moment of perihelion it will become visible at around 19:15 (PDT), 76° above your south-western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. It will then sink towards the horizon, setting at 01:54.
A chart of the path of Saturn across the sky in 2180 can be found here, and a chart of its rising and setting times here.
The position of Saturn at the moment it passes perihelion will be:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| Saturn | 05h47m10s | 22°33'N | Taurus | -0.2 | 18.5" |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 18 Aug 2026
| The sky on 18 August 2026 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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41% 6 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
| 28 Feb 2180 | – Saturn ends retrograde motion |
| 31 Oct 2180 | – Saturn enters retrograde motion |
| 06 Jan 2181 | – Saturn at opposition |
| 14 Mar 2181 | – Saturn ends retrograde motion |
Image credit
© NASA/Cassini