Astronomical database with 3D simulations, visualizations, computations, review, articles, and more.

This website is not tailored to smartphones or other hand-held devices.

Sun & Moon Today

JD 2460450  DoY 140  WoY 20
🔼04:36
🔽18:44

TWILIGHT
02:55~20:25
Ecl Long 58.7°
in Taurus

Waxing gibbous
Age 10.69 d
Phase 130.3°
Ecl Long 189.0°
in Virgo

SSE

Current asteroid count is 1,351,400

Observable comet count is 1122

Current exoplanet count is 5630

Current longitude II of the GRS is  53°

 

Today Monitor

Planet Oppositions

Mars: January 16, 2025
Jupiter: December 7, 2024
Saturn: September 8, 2024
Uranus: November 17, 2024
Neptune: September 31, 2024

 

Greatest Elongation of Venus

Evening: January 10, 2025 at 47.2°E
Morning: June 1, 2025 at 45.9°W

 

Greatest Elongation of Mercury

Evening: December 4,2023 at 21.3°E
Morning: January 12, 2024 at 23.5°W
Evening: March 24, 2024 at 18.7°E
Morning: May 9, 2024 at 26.4°W
Evening: July 22, 2024 at 26.9°E
Morning: September 5, 2024 at 18.1°W
Evening: November 16, 2024 at 22.5°E
Morning: December 25, 2024 at 22.0°W




Super Moons (full) 2024

Wednesday, September 18
Thursday, October 17

 

given for 00:00 UT

In Longitude (negative is western)

DateSizeAgeAnglePhase
14 Aug 202430.51'9.53-6.644°
15 Aug 202430.96'10.53-6.946°
16 Aug 202431.45'11.53-6.807°
27 Aug 202431.47'22.536.648°
28 Aug 202431.09'23.536.822°
29 Aug 202430.74'24.536.717°
11 Sep 202430.44'7.92-7.081°
12 Sep 202430.88'8.92-7.442°
13 Sep 202431.38'9.92-7.388°
14 Sep 202431.90'10.92-6.884°
23 Sep 202432.03'19.926.983°
24 Sep 202431.54'20.927.577°
25 Sep 202431.07'21.927.769°
26 Sep 202430.64'22.927.584°
27 Sep 202430.28'23.927.067°
09 Oct 202430.41'6.22-6.872°
10 Oct 202430.80'7.22-7.260°
11 Oct 202431.24'8.22-7.306°
12 Oct 202431.73'9.22-6.971°
21 Oct 202432.22'18.226.835°
22 Oct 202431.69'19.227.618°
23 Oct 202431.17'20.227.933°
24 Oct 202430.69'21.227.796°
25 Oct 202430.28'22.227.257°
08 Nov 202431.20'6.47-6.417°
19 Nov 202431.78'17.476.845°
20 Nov 202431.27'18.477.271°
21 Nov 202430.79'19.477.223°
22 Nov 202430.36'20.476.738°

 

In Latitude (negative is southern)

DateSizeAgeAnglePhase
11 May 202431.43'2.86-6.465°
12 May 202430.97'3.86-6.734°
13 May 202430.54'4.86-6.649°
26 May 202431.26'17.866.556°
27 May 202431.51'18.866.627°
08 Jun 202431.21'1.47-6.565°
09 Jun 202430.83'2.47-6.570°
22 Jun 202431.42'15.476.419°
23 Jun 202431.72'16.476.548°
05 Jul 202431.15'28.47-6.475°
06 Jul 202430.85'0.04-6.542°
20 Jul 202431.77'14.046.576°
01 Aug 202431.01'26.04-6.516°
02 Aug 202430.73'27.04-6.622°
16 Aug 202431.45'11.536.680°
17 Aug 202431.94'12.536.611°
28 Aug 202431.09'23.53-6.608°
29 Aug 202430.74'24.53-6.758°
30 Aug 202430.43'25.53-6.567°
12 Sep 202430.88'8.926.748°
13 Sep 202431.38'9.926.795°
14 Sep 202431.90'10.926.467°
24 Sep 202431.54'20.92-6.608°
25 Sep 202431.07'21.92-6.837°
26 Sep 202430.64'22.92-6.706°
09 Oct 202430.41'6.226.695°
10 Oct 202430.80'7.226.831°
11 Oct 202431.24'8.226.620°
21 Oct 202432.22'18.22-6.408°
22 Oct 202431.69'19.22-6.763°
23 Oct 202431.17'20.22-6.728°
05 Nov 202430.24'3.476.535°
06 Nov 202430.52'4.476.723°
07 Nov 202430.84'5.476.580°
18 Nov 202432.26'16.47-6.549°
19 Nov 202431.78'17.47-6.638°
03 Dec 202430.57'1.746.584°
04 Dec 202430.83'2.746.475°
16 Dec 202432.04'14.74-6.545°
30 Dec 202430.69'28.746.543°
31 Dec 202431.00'0.076.472°

Source: NASA/GSFC

 

Lunar Calendar 2024

Lunar Libration Calendar2024 (PDF 11.2 MB)

View table online

Lunar Libration Calendar 2023 (PDF 3.3 MB)

 

Latest Deepsky Image

2024-02-15, Samyang 135mm, Uranus-C (IMX585), UV/IR-Cut

 

Latest Planetary Image

2023-11-23, Celestron 8, Uranus-C, UV/IR-Cut filter

 

Latest Movie

2023-11-23, Celestron 8, Uranus-C, UV/IR-Cut filter

 

Latest Wide Field Image

2024-01-13, Nikon D5500, Samyang 135mm with LPR, at f/2.0, 98 x 60s, ISO1600

 

Latest Constellation Image

D5500, 35mm lens at f4, 81 x 120s, ISO1600.

 

Latest Lunar Image

C8, ASI290MM, IR642 filter (Mar 16, 2024).

 

Latest Astro Poster

Celestron 8 x 0.63, D5500, no filters.

 

Lunar Impressions March 2024

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Click to enlarge or show full screen

 


 

Source: apod.nasa.gov

Latest STScI News Release

Dr. John F. Wu Receives 2024 Maryland Outstanding Young Scientist Award

May 15, 2024

A man at image center with many green shrubs and trees in the background.

A man at image center with many green shrubs and trees in the background.

Source: Space Telescope Science Institute

Tonight's Sky

May Constellations

In May, we are looking away from the crowded, dusty plane of our own galaxy toward a region where the sky is brimming with distant galaxies. Locate Virgo to find a concentration of roughly 2,000 galaxies and search for Coma Berenices to identify many more. Keep watching for space-based views of galaxies like the Sombrero Galaxy, M87, and M64.

Source: hubblesite.org

“Tonight’s Sky” is a monthly video of constellations you can observe in the night sky. The series is produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute, home of science operations for the Hubble Space Telescope, in partnership with NASA’s Universe of Learning.

Latest JWST News

Webb detects most distant black hole merger to date

ZS7 environment (NIRcam image)

An international team of astronomers have used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to find evidence for an ongoing merger of two galaxies and their massive black holes when the Universe was only 740 million years old. This marks the most distant detection of a black hole merger ever obtained and the first time that this phenomenon has been detected so early in the Universe.


Source: esawebb.org

JWST Picture of the Month

Star-studded cluster

https://cdn.esawebb.org/archives/images/thumb350x/potm2404a.jpg

1 May 2024
This new image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope features NGC 6440, a globular cluster that resides roughly 28 000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius. The object was first discovered by William Herschel in May of 1786. Globular clusters like NGC 6440 are roughly spherical, tightly packed, collections of old stars bound together by gravity. They can be found throughout galaxies, but often live on the outskirts. They hold hundreds of thousands to millions of stars that are on average about one light-year apart, but they can be as close together as the size of our Solar System. NGC 6440 is known to be a high-mass and metal-rich cluster that formed and is orbiting within the Galactic bulge, which is a dense, near-spherical region of old stars in the inner part of the Milky Way. This image was obtained with 2023 data from Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) …


Source: esawebb.org

NASA Image of the Day

Hubble Views the Dawn of a Sun-like Star

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image captures a triple-star star system.

Click to enlarge or show full screen

Fri, 17 May 2024 20:19 GMT


Source: www.nasa.gov

 

 

No, we are not on Facebook but proudly on AstroBin with Mille Gracie to the author Salvatore Iovene:


GoTo Astropical on AstroBin

 

If anybody is interested in the night life of bats, here is a funny 1-minute MP4 video (24MB).

 

Lunar Imaging e-brochure (PDF 96.5 MB)

 

Sky Photography e-brochure (PDF 61.4 MB)

 

EAA e-brochure (PDF 89.1 MB) In work. Pre-release for feedbacks.

 

Planetary Imaging e-brochure (PDF 16.8 MB) In work. Pre-release for feedbacks.

 


Legal

In case of abuse or hacking attempts, we reserve the right to report to providers, ISPs and legal authorities. The contents of this site is public, no hidden secrets. The data is backed up in regular intervals.

 

Cookies

This website does NOT send and use "cookies".

 

Privacy

Your visit is anonymous. The author processes merely the data that a web browser is typically sending back. The purpose is only for the [Visitors Online] section below.

 

Free Registration

In order for location dependent data to show correctly you need to register. In the interest of your privacy this website does not automatically retrieve your location via third party services, etc.

Registration

 

Compatibility

Website tested under Windows and Android only. Although largely compatible with smartphones this website is primarily designed for desktops, note books and tablets. This applies in particular to database tables. Double click on page top banners to remove them.

 

Monitor Calibration

Please adjust your monitor's gamma and contrast, etc. if you cannot distinguish all shades of gray. Click for an enlarged color pattern.

 

 

URL Request

If you do not wish to register (no problem) but need to see data for your location only once or so, then you can add the following string to the URL:
?lat=xx.xxx&lon=xxx.xxx&tzn=z.zz
where xx.xxx need to be replaced by your geographic coordinates, z.zz with your time zone. This data will not be stored.

This 'once-view' will work for most pages, such as Planisphere, Deepsky Observer, Ephemerides and Today Monitor.

 


US, Ohio, Dublin
US, California, Mountain View

Last visit from: US 
on page nikond5300.php using Windows O/S.

Unique visitors today: 20 (since 0:00 UTC) from:
                   

Newest flag:   Monaco -- Welcome!
Total page views 5652 since 2024-05-01
from 84 different countries (excluding bots & idiots).

                                                                                                                                                                     

 

Operating Systems

Windows: 2201
Linux: 1294
Android: 966
iPhone: 526
Macintosh: 518
Other: 103
iPad: 29
Unknown: 13
Chrome OS: 1
Playstation: 1

 

Most Visited

index.php: 812
globe_index.php: 789
nikond5300.php: 545
binos.php: 406
timeslip.php: 353
hipparcos.php: 345
nexstar.php: 317
algol.php: 314
starref.php: 255
mpccoms.php: 146
Unique IP's only.

Site Updates

 


Deepsky Overview
My Humble Gallery
Lunar Imaging
FOV Simulator
Astro Cameras
Let's Astrophoto
Telescopes for AP

 

Total Exoplanet Count: 5630

Kepler/K2: 3322 planets
TESS: 445 planets
Latest exoplanet around:  
as of 2024-05-13

ConstellationDraco
Distance95.20 parsec
Magnitude9.02 vis.
Spectral typeG V
Mass1.1 xSun
Radius1.05 xSun
Temperature5800°K
Known planet(s)1
View in Database | Star Chart | DSS IR Image 🔗

 


Acton Sky Portal Observatory 2
Anglo-Australian Telescope 36
Apache Point Observatory 1
Arecibo Observatory 3
Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) 1
Bohyunsan Optical Astronomical Observatory 26
Calar Alto Observatory 20
Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory 5
CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite (CHEOPS) 3
CoRoT 35
European Southern Observatory 3
European Space Agency (ESA) Gaia Satellite 10
Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory 6
Gemini Observatory 9
Haleakala Observatory 2
HATNet 67
HATSouth 73
Haute-Provence Observatory 66
Hubble Space Telescope 6
Infrared Survey Facility 1
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) 1
K2 548
KELT 10
KELT-North 7
KELT-South 4
Kepler 2774
Kitt Peak National Observatory 1
KMTNet 91
KOINet 1
La Silla Observatory 284
Large Binocular Telescope Observatory 3
Las Campanas Observatory 29
Leoncito Astronomical Complex 1
Lick Observatory 36
Lowell Observatory 3
Mauna Kea Observatory 2
McDonald Observatory 31
MEarth Project 2
MOA 29
Multiple Facilities 18
Multiple Observatories 306
NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) 1
Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) 3
OGLE 101
Okayama Astrophysical Observatory 36
Palomar Observatory 2
Paranal Observatory 45
Parkes Observatory 2
Qatar 10
Roque de los Muchachos Observatory 32
South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SAR 1
SPECULOOS Southern Observatory 1
Spitzer Space Telescope 4
Subaru Telescope 11
SuperWASP 113
SuperWASP-North 5
SuperWASP-South 32
Teide Observatory 1
Thueringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg 8
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) 445
TrES 5
United Kingdom Infrared Telescope 2
University of Canterbury Mt John Observatory 1
Very Long Baseline Array 1
W. M. Keck Observatory 188
WASP-South 11
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) Sat 1
Winer Observatory 1
Xinglong Station 2
XO 6
Yunnan Astronomical Observatory 3


 

⎘

Next NEO Approach

2024 JK8 on 2024-May-19 16:58 UTC at 5.9574 LD

 

⎘

Next Meteor Shower

Daytime Arietids
14 May - 24 Jun, Peak: 6/7
Radiant: Star Chart, Rating: medium

 

⎘

Next ISS Passes

NOTE: You need to log in for correct data.

 

Random Objects

 

Gienah (53 Eps Cyg) in Cyg [HIP 102488]

Distance: 72 light-years, Magnitude: 2.48

Designated EPSILON in the constellation Cygnus, the 2nd-magnitude star Gienah is located in the wing of the "swan". The name is Arabic for "wing".

Star Chart | DSS IR Image 🔗

 

279 G. Sagittarii (GJ 783 A ) in Microscopium

Distance: 20 light-years, Magnitude: 5.3

Gliese 783 (279 G. Sagittarii) is a binary star system which is approaching the sun at a velocity of about 129 km/s. At this rate, it will be 6.7 light years away in 41,100 years, and ten times brighter than now. The A-B pair's masses are 65%/24% solar and measure 66%/28% the radius of the sun. The two stars are separated by a semi-major axis of 56.3 AUs.

Star Chart | DSS IR Image 🔗

 

M67 (Open Cluster) in Cancer

Magnitude: 6.9

At 3.2 billion years, M67 is the oldest star cluster known and the oldest of all the Messier clusters. Containing some 500 stars, 100 of them similar to our Sun, this cloud contains no main sequence stars bluer than spectral type F and 150 white dwarf stars.

Star Chart | DSS IR Image 🔗

 

Lynx (northern), area rank: 28

Located between Ursa Major and Gemini, the dim stars in this constellation describe a moderate arc. In the 17th century astronomer Johannes Hevelius introduced Lynx to fill up space between the constellations.

Star Chart

 

46P/Wirtanen

Discovered on January 17, 1948, 46P/Wirtanen is a short period (5.4 years) returning comet belonging to the Jupiter family of comets with an estimated diameter of 1.2 kilometers. It boasts a higher level of activity than expected for its nucleus size and emits more water vapor than it should. It was the original target for ESA's Rosetta spacecraft which missed the launch window and changed its destination to 67P. On December 16, 2018 the comet will pass Earth at about 30 lunar distances reaching a forecast magnitude peaking at 3.0 during the close approach or 7.5 visually in a worst case.

 

 

Ixion (TNO/Plutino)

Semi-major: 39.59054 AU, Size: 727 km

Discovered in 2001, 28978 Ixion is a plutino object with an assumed diameter of 650 km and moderate orbit inclination completing one cycle in about 250 years at a mean distance of 39.68 AU. The rotation peroid is yet unknown, but shows subtle changes in brightness as result of axial rotation. It shines moderately in red.

 

 

Nix (moon of Pluto)

Nix is the third largest natural satellite of Pluto discovered in 2005 by the Hubble Space Telescope. Nix has been measured to be 54 x 41 x 36 km in diameter, indicating a very elongated shape, and a very high geometric albedo.

 

 

HD 142245 b (in Serpens)

Mass: 3.07 xJup
SMA: 2.78 AU
Period: 1299 days
Distance: 97.2305 parsec
Category: Hot Jovian
ESI: 0.363542

Star Chart | DSS IR Image 🔗

 

Android Astronomy Apps

Android Application

Lunar Imaging App (free, no ads)

 

App Web Site (Manual and Download)

 

 

 

3D Visualizations

Solar System

Exoplanets

Earth

 

 

Dark Site in Morocco

Some say that the seeing is better only in space.

Click on the banner to visit the new website of SaharaSky, the first and currently only private observatory with Casbah-style *** hotel in North Africa.

 

The owner, Fritz, is a German with a life-long passion for astronomy. Then, as he felt in deep love with Morocco and its wonderful people, he built a self-contained hotel at the feet of the Sahara about 30 kilometers to the southeast of the town of Zagora entirely in the traditional southern Moroccan Casbah-style and equipped it, besides comfortable rooms, a restaurant, spa and sauna, with a rich portfolio of optical instruments and accessories for amateur astronomers.

Fritz chose the location extremely well, a truly dark site in absence of city and street lights, blessed with an average of 300 clear dry nights annually. The observatory atop the hotel building offers a 360 degrees panoramic view on 500 square meters.

Most guests are professional and amateur astronomers, but also people of all ages with affection for the fascination of the stars and the desert. From the hotel's wide roof terrace, everybody can enjoy the starry sky dominated by the arch of the Milky Way with bare eyes or with rental telescopes and cameras.

The heart and soul of SaharaSky's observatory is Patrick from Belgium, not only a senior professional astronomer, but also a talented animator and entertainer under the Saharan stars.

A stay at SaharaSky is not limited to the night sky. SaharaSky provides equipment for solar observation, but Fritz also organises desert excursions for several days, overnight or day-return treks in a 4x4 or on dromedar backs, plus guided tours to historically invaluable local sites, such as the Petroglyphs of Ait Ouazzik.

Owner and staff as a team speak Arabic, local Berber, English, French, German, Spanish and Dutch.

Scotty, lock on to the coordinates of SaharaSky and beam us over!


SaharaSky owns telescopes with apertures from 40 to 400mm, such as Takahashi APOs, each of which can be saddled on high precision GM2000 mounts featuring GPS, GoTo and accurate guiding for both, visual observation and photography.

 

 

Leave a Comment

Only in case you expect a reply. Will not be published.


Comments