Jupiter will reach
opposition, when it lies opposite to the Sun in the sky.
Lying in the constellation
Aries, it will be visible for much of the night, reaching its
highest point in the sky around midnight local time.
From Orlando, it will be visible between 19:16 and 07:02. It will become accessible at around 19:16, when it rises to an altitude of 7° above your eastern horizon. It will reach its highest point in the sky at 01:09, 74° above your southern horizon. It will become inaccessible at around 07:02 when it sinks below 7° above your western horizon.
2023 apparition of Jupiter
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 2023, and when it is most
distant from the Earth at
solar conjunction.
A comparison of the size of Jupiter as seen at 2023 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
5.20Â 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 2023 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
3.98Â AU,
and its disk will measure
48.4Â arcsec
in diameter, shining at magnitude -2.9.
Its celestial coordinates at the moment it passes opposition will be:
Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
Jupiter | 02h32m50s | 13°31’N | Aries | -2.9 | 48.4″ |
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 3 Nov 2023
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.
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Image credit
© NASA/Cassini