Where Are We in Every Cycle Right Now?

How to read the cosmic clock

Each ring shows how far through its cycle we are right now. The solid rings are computed live and exactly from the same astronomical model the rest of this site uses: the Moon’s phase through the 29.5-day cycle of lunations, our progress through the solar year and the run-up to the next eclipse season, where Venus sits in its 1.6-year dance with the Sun, and how far the slow Jupiter and Saturn great-conjunction cycle has turned toward its next meeting.

The three dashed rings are honest estimates, because their exact present phase is either set by convention or not precisely known. The sunspot cycle varies from 9 to 14 years, so its position is approximate. The Great Year of axial precession turns so slowly (about 25,920 years) that its zero point is a matter of convention; what is certain is that Polaris is our pole star now and Vega will take the role in about 12,000 years. And the galactic year, the Sun’s 230-million-year orbit of the Milky Way, is known as a length but not as a precise present phase, so its ring marks the roughly 20 laps the Sun has made since it formed rather than a live position.

Want the whole spectrum on one ruler instead? The Astronomical Cycles page plots all 65 from a day to a galactic year, and Cycle Convergence shows how they drift in and out of step.