What’s in the Sky Tonight?
Enter where you are and this page works out tonight’s sky: when the Sun sets and when the sky gets truly dark, the phase of the Moon and when it is up, which of the five naked-eye planets you can see and where to look, and any visible passes of the International Space Station. Nothing is looked up from a table: the positions are calculated for your coordinates and the current time.
The Moon today
- Moon: First Quarter, 56% of its face lit, 7.9 days into the lunar cycle.
- Next full Moon: 2026-10-26.
- Next new Moon: 2026-11-09.
- Naked-eye planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Which are up tonight depends on your location; enter it below for the list.
Snapshot taken 2026-10-19 06:04 UTC. The live view replaces this as soon as the page’s script loads.
Your location
Choose a place to begin. Your location is only used in your browser.
How dark is “dark”? The three kinds of twilight
The sky does not go black the moment the Sun sets. It darkens in stages, named for how far the Sun is below your horizon. Civil twilight (Sun up to 6° down) is bright enough to read outdoors, but Venus, Jupiter and the ISS are already easy to spot. Nautical twilight (6° to 12°) brings out the brighter stars and the horizon fades. Astronomical twilight (12° to 18°) is the last stage; once the Sun passes 18° below the horizon the sky is fully dark, and faint stars and the Milky Way appear if you are away from city lights. The timeline above shows each moment for your location. Near the poles in summer the Sun may never get far enough down, which is why the page says so instead of inventing times.
Seeing the planets
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were known long before telescopes because they are bright and, unlike stars, do not twinkle much. They all travel along the same band of sky, the ecliptic, so they appear in a rough line with the Moon. A planet is listed here as visible only if it is at least 8° above the horizon while the sky is dark enough, with a more generous limit for the two very bright ones, Venus and Jupiter. Brightness is shown as magnitude: smaller numbers are brighter, so −4 is far brighter than +1. Mercury is the hardest, because it never strays far from the Sun and is usually only visible low in twilight.
The Moon and dark skies
The Moon goes through eight named phases every 29.5 days. Around the new Moon it is in the sky only by day, which gives the darkest nights for stars, galaxies and meteors. Around the full Moon it rises at sunset and floods the sky with light. The page tells you how much of the Moon is lit and during which hours it is above your horizon, and flags a bright Moon, because moonlight hides faint objects but does very little to planets or the space station.
Spotting the International Space Station
The ISS is a bright, steady, fast-moving point of light, and it is only visible when it is still in sunlight while your sky is already dark. The passes listed for tonight meet exactly that test, with the time, how high it climbs and the direction to look. For every pass over the coming days, with cloud cover and a map of where it is now, open the visible-tonight finder or the live tracker.
How it is calculated
Everything on this page is computed in your browser from your coordinates and the current time. The Sun, Moon and planets use the open-source Astronomy Engine, which is accurate to about one arcminute, far finer than the eye can tell. ISS passes come from the same SGP4 orbit model as the live tracker, using the latest orbital elements. The cloud-cover figure is an hourly forecast from Open-Meteo for your coordinates. See About & methodology for sources and accuracy.
Frequently asked questions
Which planets can I see tonight?
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are the five naked-eye planets. Which are above your horizon in a dark enough sky changes with date and location, so use the planet table above for tonight’s list, best time and direction.
When is it dark enough to see faint stars?
Once the Sun is more than 18° below the horizon, at the end of astronomical twilight. Bright planets and the ISS show much earlier.
Does the Moon affect what I can see?
Yes. A bright Moon washes out faint stars, galaxies and meteors, but barely affects planets or the ISS. The darkest skies come around the new Moon.
How are the times calculated?
Positions are calculated for your exact coordinates in your browser, using the Astronomy Engine for the Sun, Moon and planets and SGP4 for the ISS.
Planning to look up tonight? Check when the space station passes over you and how clear the sky will be.
Is the ISS visible tonight? Aurora and space weather