What planets are visible tonight from my location?

Open the all-sky disk and allow your browser to use your location. Planets currently above your horizon appear on the map, labelled by name, with the Moon, bright stars and constellation lines.

How do I read the sky disk?

You are looking up: zenith is at the centre, the outer circle is the horizon. In the northern hemisphere South is at the top and East is on the left, so the Sun's path is the upper half of the disk and noon is toward the South. Objects near the edge are low; objects near the centre are high.

Can I watch the sky change over time?

Yes. Use the date and time controls at the bottom of the page, then press Play to animate the sky. Stars, planets and the Moon move as time advances hour by hour.

Tonight's all-sky disk from your location

This all-sky disk shows the whole sky above you, now or at any date and time you choose. The centre is the zenith, the point directly overhead, and the outer circle is the horizon. In the northern hemisphere South is at the top and East on the left, as on a planisphere held above your head.

Which planets are visible tonight?

Tap My location to centre the map on your latitude and longitude. Every planet above your horizon is drawn and labelled, with the Moon, the bright stars and the constellation lines. The panel on the left lists each object with its compass direction, its altitude in degrees and the constellation it is in, followed by the state of the sky, the phase of the Moon and your local sidereal time.

Venus and Jupiter are usually the brightest points after the Moon, Mars glows orange-red and Saturn shines with a steady yellowish light. Mercury stays low in the twilight. Uranus and Neptune need binoculars or a telescope.

How to read the disk

Imagine lying on your back and looking straight up. Objects near the edge are low on the horizon, objects near the centre are high. Altitude runs from 0° on the horizon to 90° at the zenith; azimuth is the compass direction. Anything below about 15° is often lost in haze and light pollution. Toggle Lines and Names, and use the Mag slider to match your sky: 3 for a city, 6 for a dark rural site.

Facing south or north

The two insets at the bottom left split the sky in two halves, as an observer standing upright sees it. Facing south shows the southern half of the sky: the horizon is the flat lower edge, running from East on the left to West on the right, and the zenith is at the top of the arc. Facing north shows the other half, with West on the left. Click an inset to swap it with the main view.

Watch the sky move

Pick any date and time, then press Play. The stars wheel around the celestial pole as the Earth turns, the Moon shifts about 13° a day and the planets drift slowly along the ecliptic. Now brings you back to the present moment.

How accurate is it?

Positions are computed in your browser with the methods of Jean Meeus' Astronomical Algorithms: the VSOP87 planetary theory, Meeus' lunar theory and the apparent sidereal time of your location. The result is more than precise enough for naked-eye, binocular and small-telescope observing.

Tips for tonight

Give your eyes 20 minutes to adapt to the dark and avoid bright phone screens. Wait until the sky shows Astronomical twilight or Dark night in the left panel before hunting faint stars, and plan deep-sky sessions around the new Moon.

What you can see without a telescope

Five planets are visible to the naked eye: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. All of them stay close to the ecliptic, the path of the Sun, so they line up across the sky with the Moon. Venus is either the evening star, low in the west after sunset, or the morning star in the east before dawn, and never strays far from the Sun. Jupiter and Saturn are best around opposition, when they rise at sunset and stay up all night.

The Moon is the easiest target of all. The most detail shows along the terminator, the line between lunar day and night, where long shadows make craters and mountains stand out; around first quarter even a pair of binoculars reveals them. A full Moon is bright but flat, and it washes the faint stars out of the sky.

The bright stars change with the seasons, because the night side of the Earth faces a different direction as it goes round the Sun. That is also why each star rises about four minutes earlier every day (see sidereal time). Orion fills northern winter evenings, the Summer Triangle of Vega, Deneb and Altair the summer ones. Under a dark sky the eye reaches about magnitude 6. Ordinary 10×50 binoculars go down to about magnitude 9: they show the four large moons of Jupiter and turn the Pleiades into dozens of stars.

Learn more

Made by Laurent Remond

Date & time Lat Lon E

Location

Mag 4.5 Lines Names

100%

Projection