Jupiter Opposition 2027: How to See Jupiter and Its Moons This Winter

Jupiter is back. After passing behind the Sun earlier in the year, the giant planet is climbing higher in the morning sky every week, and over the coming months it will move into the evening sky, reaching its best of the season at Jupiter opposition 2027 on 11 February 2027. Shining brighter than any star, Jupiter is the easiest planet to find, and even a small pair of binoculars will show its four largest moons changing position from night to night.

This guide explains where to find Jupiter right now, what opposition means, the key dates for the 2026–2027 season and what you can see with binoculars and a small telescope.

Where is Jupiter right now?

In early November 2026 Jupiter is a morning planet in the constellation Leo. It rises around 11 p.m. local time in mid-November and is high in the south (from the Northern Hemisphere) as dawn begins to break. At magnitude about −2.0 it is unmistakable, a steady, cream-coloured point of light that outshines every star in that part of the sky. Mars is nearby: on 16 November the two planets pass only about 1° apart, part of this month’s four-planet parade before sunrise.

Each month Jupiter rises about two hours earlier. Approximate rising times for mid-northern latitudes (New York, London, New Delhi) are:

From the Southern Hemisphere, Jupiter rises one to two hours later and appears lower in the north. For exact times at your location, open our planets visible tonight tool.

What is Jupiter opposition?

Opposition is the moment when Earth passes between the Sun and an outer planet, so that the planet sits exactly opposite the Sun in our sky. At opposition Jupiter rises at sunset, is highest around midnight and sets at sunrise, so it is visible all night. It is also at its closest to Earth for the year, which makes it as bright and as large in a telescope as it will appear this season.

At opposition on 11 February 2027 (00:17 UTC), Jupiter will be about 652 million kilometres from Earth and shine at magnitude −2.6. Its disc will span about 45 arcseconds, compared with about 36 arcseconds in early November. Earth overtakes Jupiter roughly every 13 months, so each opposition comes about a month later than the previous one; this one falls in the constellation Leo, high in the sky for northern observers, which makes it a particularly good one for the Northern Hemisphere.

Key Jupiter dates for 2026–2027

• 16 November 2026: Mars and Jupiter about 1° apart in the morning sky.
• 30 November 2026: the Moon passes very close to Jupiter, about 1° apart (some places may see the Moon hide it).
• Mid-December 2026: Jupiter stops moving eastward among the stars and begins its retrograde (westward) loop, a sign that opposition is approaching.
• 27 December 2026, 23–24 January and 20 February 2027: further close pairings of the Moon and Jupiter.
• 11 February 2027: opposition, Jupiter at its brightest and closest.
• Mid-April 2027: Jupiter ends its retrograde loop and resumes its normal motion.

Our planetary events calendar and upcoming space events page list these and other dates with countdowns.

Seeing Jupiter’s moons with binoculars

In January 1610 Galileo turned a small telescope on Jupiter and saw three, then four, “stars” lined up beside it that moved from night to night. They were moons, and their discovery showed that not everything in the sky orbits Earth. Today you can repeat his observation with ordinary binoculars. Hold them steady, ideally resting them on a wall or a tripod, and look for up to four tiny points of light in a line on either side of Jupiter.

These are the Galilean moons:

• Io, the closest, orbits in just 1.8 days and is the most volcanically active world in the Solar System.
• Europa, 3.6 days, hides a global ocean under its icy crust.
• Ganymede, 7.2 days, is the largest moon in the Solar System, bigger than the planet Mercury.
• Callisto, 16.7 days, is the outermost of the four and the most heavily cratered.

Because they move so quickly, their pattern changes every night, and sometimes one or two are hidden behind or in front of Jupiter. Our Jupiter moons tracker shows exactly where each moon is right now, so you can identify them.

What a small telescope shows

A small telescope at 50× to 100× turns Jupiter into a small, flattened disc crossed by two dark stripes, the North and South Equatorial Belts. On nights of steady air, larger instruments reveal more belts, festoons and storms, including the famous Great Red Spot, a storm larger than Earth that has been raging for centuries, although it has shrunk noticeably in recent decades. Jupiter spins once in under 10 hours, so the view changes within an hour as features rotate into sight.

Watch for moon events too: a moon’s black shadow crossing Jupiter’s cloud tops is a striking sight in a 10 cm telescope or larger. To choose the right eyepiece, try our telescope magnification calculator, and compare Jupiter’s apparent size with the other planets using the planet size comparison tool.

Tips for the best view

• Wait for height. Jupiter looks sharpest when it is high in the sky, above the turbulent air near the horizon.
• Let your telescope cool. Put it outside 20 to 30 minutes before observing, so warm air inside the tube does not blur the view.
• Use moderate magnification. More power is not always better; on most nights 100× to 150× shows the most detail.
• Try a smartphone. Hold your phone camera to the eyepiece of binoculars or a telescope, reduce the exposure, and you may capture the moons as a row of dots.

Missions on their way to Jupiter

Jupiter is also the destination for two major spacecraft. NASA’s Europa Clipper, launched in 2024, is due to arrive in 2030 to study whether Europa’s ocean could support life, and ESA’s JUICE will reach Jupiter in 2031 before settling into orbit around Ganymede. Read how the two missions differ in our guide Europa Clipper vs JUICE.

Frequently asked questions

When is Jupiter closest to Earth in 2027? At opposition on 11 February 2027, when it is about 652 million kilometres away.

Can I see Jupiter with the naked eye? Yes. Jupiter is one of the brightest objects in the night sky; usually only the Moon and Venus are brighter.

Can binoculars show Jupiter’s moons? Yes. Steady 7× to 10× binoculars show up to four moons as tiny star-like points beside the planet.

Why does Jupiter not twinkle like a star? Jupiter shows a small disc rather than a single point, so the atmosphere’s turbulence averages out and its light looks steadier than starlight.

Sources: planet positions, rising times, distances and dates calculated by SpaceTracker.live with the Astronomy Engine library; NASA Science: Jupiter; NASA Science: Jupiter’s moons.