A live snapshot of what is happening overhead: the Moon's phase, where each planet sits in the zodiac, and the next sky events, all computed in your browser for today.
Naked-eye planets are listed first; Uranus and Neptune need binoculars or a telescope, and Pluto, reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006, is a faint speck for large telescopes only. A morning-sky planet rises in the east before dawn; an evening-sky planet is in the west after sunset. A bright outer planet near opposition is the exception, rising in the east at dusk and standing highest around midnight, so it is up most of the night. Those compass directions are the same in both hemispheres; only the height and whether the planet leans toward the south or north flip when you cross the equator. For each object's exact direction and height tonight, see What's Up Tonight below.
Next sky events
Eclipse dates are when each happens somewhere on Earth. For the next visible planet parade at your location, use the tracker.
Open the Live Orrery to watch these positions change over time, or the Planet Parade Tracker to find the next time several planets gather in your sky.
What's up tonight: the best things to see
A ranked list of what is worth looking at tonight from your location: the Moon, the bright planets, and showpiece star clusters, nebulae and galaxies, each with how high it climbs, when, which way to look, and whether to use your eyes, binoculars or a telescope.
Enter exact coordinates
CycleCalcs.comPick a location to see what is up tonight.
Best-placed objects first; "highest" is when each peaks tonight. Times are in your device's time zone. The sky is computed entirely in your browser; tapping Use my location sends your coordinates once to a place-name service to show your city, and the place search sends the text you type once to Open-Meteo, only to find your spot. To choose a moonless night, see the dark window on the Sunrise & Sunset page.
Meteor showers: what's coming up
Loading the meteor-shower calendar...
Saturn & Jupiter up close
Working out Saturn's rings and Jupiter's moons...
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About this page
Everything here is worked out live from the Astronomy Engine library when you load the page, for the current date and time on your device. The Moon's phase, the planets' positions along the zodiac, and the dates of the next moons, eclipses and seasons are all computed, not stored, so the page is always current.
The zodiac positions are tropical ecliptic longitudes, the same measure used across the site, with 0° at the spring equinox point. A planet listed as a morning object rises before the Sun; an evening object sets after it. A planet within about 15° of the Sun is lost in the glare and hard to see.