Jupiter on June 10 is in the opposite direction from the Sun, therefore at its most conspicuous, though lying more southward than in other years.
See the end-note about enlarging illustrations.
The instant of opposition, 180° away from the Sun, is 10h Universal Time, which is from 4 to 7 hours earlier in the contiguous United States. Moving retrograde (westward) as a planet always does around the time of opposition, it has just passed 0.4° north of the point we mark as the “anti-Sun.”
With its roughly 12-year orbit, Jupiter tours the twelve zodiacal constellations. Last year it was in Libra. This year it would be in Scorpius, but for the quirk of constellation boundaries that causes most of this part of the ecliptic to be in Ophiuchus – as shown by this part of our “Zodiac Wavy Chart” for 2019.
The opposition that comes near our mid-summer, opposite to the northernmost Sun, has to be on the southernmost part of the ecliptic (even though most of Scorpius lies even farther south). So this opposition is the southernmost of the Jupiter cycle. So (for us in the northern hemisphere) Jupiter rises much later, climbs much less high at midnight, and is in the sky for a much shorter time, than in the years when it is traveling the northern ecliptic in Taurus and Gemini.
In this part of its orbit Jupiter is moving slightly inward, so the instant when it is closest to Earth is slightly later than opposition. It comes on June 12, at 2h UT, when the planet’s distance from us will be 4.284 astronomical units (641 million kilometers). So this will be when its disk in the telescope is largest, 46 seconds wide.
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ILLUSTRATIONS in these posts are made with precision but have to be inserted in another format. You may be able to enlarge them on your monitor. One way: right-click, and choose “View image”, then enlarge. Or choose “Copy image”, then put it on your desktop, then open it. On an iPad or phone, use the finger gesture that enlarges (spreading with two fingers, or tapping and dragging with three fingers). I am grateful to know of what methods work for you.
From the Southern Hemisphere (near Cape Town), brilliant Jupiter is quite the sight rising underneath Scorpius (rising on its side).
I must kick myself to do southern-hemisphere views more often.
Thanks a lot for all the information! However I think the correct closest distance is 641, not 741 million Km.
Again, thanks for the correction. 6/7 is one of the typos that are creepong up on me. i/o is another.
Now that the contiguous USA is on DST, we’re 4 to 7 hours earlier than UT.
Right, I’ll correct it.
God bless Arizona for staying on Standard Time year round! ;-)