Planets in 2027: Jupiter Opposition Feb. 10, Mars Feb. 19, Saturn Oct. 17 in Eastern Time

Jupiter reaches opposition on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2027, at 7:29 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST), Mars follows on Friday, Feb. 19, at 10:51 a.m. EST and Saturn on Sunday, Oct. 17, at 8:36 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), according to the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) table “Celestial Phenomena in 2027.” NAOJ lists its times in Japan Standard Time (JST), so we converted each one to Eastern Time (ET).

Of the 24 oppositions, greatest elongations and conjunctions with the Sun in NAOJ’s 2027 list, 14 fall on an earlier calendar date in the United States than in Japan. Print the 12 main dates on one page with the Planet Events 2027 printable, and mark them on a 2027 printable yearly calendar.

Planet events in 2027 by date, in Eastern Time

Eastern Time is EST until Sunday, March 14, 2027, EDT from March 14 to Nov. 7, and EST again after that. The conversion is JST minus 14 hours in EST and minus 13 hours in EDT. NAOJ gives some events only to the hour (“03h”); those rows say “about.”

Date (Eastern)	Time (Eastern)	Planet	Event	NAOJ date and time (JST)
Fri., Jan. 1	12:08 p.m. EST	Mercury	Superior conjunction	Jan. 2, 02:08
Sun., Jan. 3	about 1 p.m. EST	Venus	Greatest elongation west, 46° 57’	Jan. 4, 03h
Wed., Feb. 3	about 1 a.m. EST	Mercury	Greatest elongation east, 18° 19’	Feb. 3, 15h
Wed., Feb. 10	7:29 p.m. EST	Jupiter	Opposition	Feb. 11, 09:29
Thu., Feb. 18	11:39 a.m. EST	Mercury	Inferior conjunction	Feb. 19, 01:39
Fri., Feb. 19	10:51 a.m. EST	Mars	Opposition	Feb. 20, 00:51
Wed., March 17	about 3 a.m. EDT	Mercury	Greatest elongation west, 27° 38’	March 17, 16h
Wed., March 24	7:13 p.m. EDT	Neptune	Conjunction with the Sun	March 25, 08:13
Wed., April 7	1:18 p.m. EDT	Saturn	Conjunction with the Sun	April 8, 02:18
Wed., April 28	5:22 p.m. EDT	Mercury	Superior conjunction	April 29, 06:22
Thu., May 27	2:12 a.m. EDT	Uranus	Conjunction with the Sun	May 27, 15:12
Fri., May 28	about 6 a.m. EDT	Mercury	Greatest elongation east, 22° 55’	May 28, 19h
Wed., June 23	4:00 a.m. EDT	Mercury	Inferior conjunction	June 23, 17:00
Thu., July 15	about 3 p.m. EDT	Mercury	Greatest elongation west, 20° 42’	July 16, 04h
Wed., Aug. 11	7:02 a.m. EDT	Mercury	Superior conjunction	Aug. 11, 20:02
Wed., Aug. 11	8:21 p.m. EDT	Venus	Superior conjunction	Aug. 12, 09:21
Tue., Aug. 31	3:30 a.m. EDT	Jupiter	Conjunction with the Sun	Aug. 31, 16:30
Fri., Sept. 24	about 6 p.m. EDT	Mercury	Greatest elongation east, 26° 16’	Sept. 25, 07h
Tue., Sept. 28	10:19 a.m. EDT	Neptune	Opposition	Sept. 28, 23:19
Sun., Oct. 17	8:36 p.m. EDT	Saturn	Opposition	Oct. 18, 09:36
Tue., Oct. 19	11:31 a.m. EDT	Mercury	Inferior conjunction	Oct. 20, 00:31
Thu., Nov. 4	about 5 a.m. EDT	Mercury	Greatest elongation west, 18° 46’	Nov. 4, 18h
Tue., Nov. 30	4:22 a.m. EST	Uranus	Opposition	Nov. 30, 18:22
Sat., Dec. 11	5:17 p.m. EST	Mercury	Superior conjunction	Dec. 12, 07:17

At opposition a planet sits opposite the Sun in the sky; NAOJ lists the angle between them as 180°. At a conjunction with the Sun the planet lines up with it, and NAOJ lists 0°. For Mercury and Venus, “inferior” means the planet passes between Earth and the Sun and “superior” means it passes behind the Sun. Greatest elongation is the widest angle between Mercury or Venus and the Sun, shown here as NAOJ gives it. “East” is the Sun’s evening side and “west” its morning side. NAOJ’s list also has stationary points and quadratures, which we left out.

When do the five planet oppositions of 2027 fall?

NAOJ lists one opposition for each of the five planets beyond Earth’s orbit: Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The Moon column uses the New Moon and Full Moon times in our moon phases 2027 calendar, which come from the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO).

Planet	Opposition (Eastern)	Nearest New Moon or Full Moon
Jupiter	Wed., Feb. 10, 7:29 p.m. EST	New Moon Sat., Feb. 6, 10:56 a.m. EST, about four days earlier
Mars	Fri., Feb. 19, 10:51 a.m. EST	Full Moon Sat., Feb. 20, 6:23 p.m. EST, about 31 hours later
Neptune	Tue., Sept. 28, 10:19 a.m. EDT	New Moon Wed., Sept. 29, 10:36 p.m. EDT, about 36 hours later
Saturn	Sun., Oct. 17, 8:36 p.m. EDT	Full Moon Fri., Oct. 15, 9:47 a.m. EDT, about two and a half days earlier
Uranus	Tue., Nov. 30, 4:22 a.m. EST	New Moon Sat., Nov. 27, 10:24 p.m. EST, about two days earlier

The Moon intervals are our arithmetic from the NAOJ and USNO times. Mercury and Venus have elongations and conjunctions in NAOJ’s list but no opposition.

How close is Mars at its Feb. 19, 2027 opposition?

NAOJ puts Mars at opposition at 00:51 JST on Feb. 20, which is 10:51 a.m. EST on Friday, Feb. 19, in the United States.

This opposition is a less favorable one. EarthSky calls the 2025, 2027 and 2029 oppositions “not favorable” because Mars is near aphelion, the farthest point from the Sun in its orbit. The Flandrau Science Center & Planetarium at the University of Arizona says the same in its 2025 guide: the last opposition was “a little closer, and the next one will be a little farther.”

The Flandrau guide lists the January 2025 approach at 59.7 million miles and an apparent size of 14.6 arcseconds. The 2027 figures are not in NAOJ’s table, so we do not print them.

Jupiter and Mars: the February 2027 window

Jupiter’s opposition (Wed., Feb. 10, 7:29 p.m. EST) and Mars’s (Fri., Feb. 19, 10:51 a.m. EST) are 8 days 15 hours apart.

• Wed., Feb. 10: Jupiter at opposition, four days after the Feb. 6 New Moon.
• Fri., Feb. 19: Mars at opposition at 10:51 a.m. EST, so the first night after it is the night of Feb. 19.
• Sat., Feb. 20: Full Moon at 6:23 p.m. EST, according to the USNO. NASA lists greatest eclipse of a penumbral lunar eclipse at 6:13 p.m. EST the same day; see our 2027 eclipse dates.

Mark the days on a February 2027 printable calendar.

Venus and Mercury in 2027: greatest elongation dates

Venus has one greatest elongation, west, on Sunday, Jan. 3, at about 1 p.m. EST (Jan. 4, 03h in Japan), at 46° 57’ from the Sun. Our own calculation in the December 2026 night sky calendar put it at 12:56 p.m. EST that day. Venus then passes behind the Sun at its superior conjunction on Wed., Aug. 11, at 8:21 p.m. EDT.

Mercury has six, three on each side of the Sun.

Date (Eastern)	Side	Angle from the Sun
Wed., Feb. 3	East	18° 19’
Wed., March 17	West	27° 38’
Fri., May 28	East	22° 55’
Thu., July 15	West	20° 42’
Fri., Sept. 24	East	26° 16’
Thu., Nov. 4	West	18° 46’

The widest of the six is 27° 38’ on March 17 and the narrowest is 18° 19’ on Feb. 3, both from NAOJ’s list. Start the year on a January 2027 printable calendar to track Venus’s elongation on Jan. 3.

Why does another site list a different date for the same event?

Because NAOJ’s table runs on JST, which is Universal Time (UT) plus 9 hours. Jupiter’s opposition is 09:29 JST on Feb. 11, which is 00:29 UT on Feb. 11 and 7:29 p.m. EST on Feb. 10. Saturn’s is 09:36 JST on Oct. 18, which is 00:36 UT and 8:36 p.m. EDT on Oct. 17. Each pair is the same moment shown on a different clock.

We use NAOJ’s Koyomi table for every date above, and the only other sources are the ones named in the text. We leave out brightness figures because they are not in NAOJ’s table. Anything not in the table, such as the 2025 Mars figures, names its source in the sentence.