jQuery: Determine absolute position of an element from the top

Yes, it is. You can simply use the method .offset() giving us the current position of an element relative to the document. Offset provides us with your desired top position with .offset().top and the position from the left with .offset().left.

var a = $('#mydiv').offset().top;
var b = $('#mydiv').offset().left;

In this small example, we set the variable "a" to the top position of the container with the ID "mydiv" and "b" to the left-position of the same container.

If you are using the method .position() instead, you can determine the position relative to the parent element.
2013-09-25 at 18:56