Jupiter reaches opposition on April 7, 2017. The giant planet rises in the east at sunset. The chart above shows the planet with Spica and the constellation Corvus in the southeast about 100 minutes after sunset (the end of twilight). Jupiter is 7 degrees from Spica.
At opposition our planet passes between the outer planet and the sun. Jupiter and the sun are on opposite sides of Earth. When the sun sets in the west, Jupiter rises in the east. As our planet rotates, Jupiter appears higher in the east. At midnight it is south, opposite the time when the sun is south: noon. Jupiter begins to descend in the western sky, setting in the west as the sun rises in the eastern sky.
At this opposition Jupiter is nearly 415 million miles away from us. This planet has highly reflective clouds and appears as the fourth brightest object in the sky, after the sun, moon, and Venus.
On the evening of April 10, the nearly full moon appears 3 degrees to the lower left of Jupiter.
For more about the planets’ appearances, see other articles in this list: