The Sun, the Moon and the planets
One page per world. Each one tells you where its object is tonight from your location, when and how to see it, the physical facts (from NASA's fact sheets, cited on every page), and the sky cycles it follows, with the next oppositions, elongations, eclipses and phases computed years ahead.
Start with whatever is up tonight: the Today in the Sky dashboard ranks the best targets for your location, and the Sky Map plots every one of these objects live. Or browse the worlds directly.
The worlds
The Sun
Sunrise and sunset for your location, the next equinoxes and solstices, and the rhythm of the 11-year sunspot cycle.
MoonThe Moon
Tonight's phase, a 12-month phase calendar, and the cycles behind tides, supermoons and eclipses.
PlanetMercury
The elusive twilight planet: its morning and evening windows, and the 3:2 spin-orbit resonance that stretches its day to two of its years.
PlanetVenus
The evening and morning star: which one it is right now, and the 8-year pattern its apparitions repeat.
PlanetMars
The next opposition, where it sits month by month, and the retrograde loop that puzzled astronomers for two thousand years.
PlanetJupiter
The giant planet and its four Galilean moons, with an opposition that arrives about a month later each year.
PlanetSaturn
The rings and when they open and close, on Saturn's slow 29-year circuit of the sky.
PlanetUranus
The sideways planet at the naked-eye limit: how to actually find it with binoculars and a chart.
PlanetNeptune
The planet found by mathematics before any telescope saw it, and how to track it down yourself.
Dwarf planetPluto
A 248-year orbit, a true 3:2 resonance with Neptune, and what it actually takes to see it.
How these pages work
Every date on these pages comes from a calculation rather than a copied list: oppositions and conjunctions with synodic rhythms behind them, greatest elongations for the inner planets, phase calendars for the Moon, and equinoxes, solstices and eclipses for the Sun. The live panels compute your local rise and set times in your browser; your location is never stored or sent anywhere except an optional one-time place-name lookup. Positions use the open-source Astronomy Engine, the same library behind the Live Orrery and the Planet Parade Tracker; the methodology page explains the accuracy limits.
Frequently asked questions
What order are the planets from the Sun?
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Pluto, which orbits farther out on average, has been classified as a dwarf planet since 2006. The gas giants Jupiter and Saturn sit beyond the rocky inner planets, with the ice giants Uranus and Neptune beyond them.
Which planets can I see without a telescope?
Five planets are easy naked-eye objects: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Each looks like a bright star; none of them twinkle the way stars do. Uranus sits right at the naked-eye limit and realistically needs binoculars, Neptune always needs optics, and Pluto needs a large amateur telescope.
Why do the Sun, the Moon and the planets all follow the same path across the sky?
Because the solar system is nearly flat. The planets orbit the Sun in almost the same plane, so from inside that plane we see them all strung along one line across the sky, called the ecliptic. That shared path is why the Moon and planets meet in conjunctions, and why eclipses happen along it.
How are the positions on these pages computed?
In your browser, with the open-source Astronomy Engine library, the same engine behind every live tool on this site. Positions are typically accurate to well under a degree for dates between the years 1700 and 2200. The baked event dates on each page come from the same engine at build time.