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

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Sun & Moon Today

JD 2461290  DoY 249  WoY 36
🔼05:20
🔽18:04

Ecl Long 163.8°
in Leo

Waning crescent
Age 24.39 d
Phase 62.6°
Ecl Long 101.2°
in Gemini

SSE

Observable comet count is 1957

Current exoplanet count is 6354

Current longitude II of the GRS is  90°

 

Today Monitor

 


Planet Oppositions


Saturn on 2025-09-03 13:41 UTC

Mars: January 16, 2025
Jupiter: January 10, 2026
Saturn: September 21, 2025
Uranus: November 21, 2025
Neptune: September 23, 2025

 

Greatest Elongation of Venus

Evening: August 15, 2026 at 45.9°E
Morning: January 3, 2027 at 47.0°W

 

Greatest Elongation of Mercury

Morning: December 7, 2025 at 20.7°W
Evening: February 19, 2026 at 18.1°E
Morning: April 3, 2026 at 27.8°W
Evening: June 15, 2026 at 24.5°E
Morning: August 2, 2026 at 19.5°W
Evening: October 12, 2026 at 25.2°E
Morning: November 20, 2026 at 19.6°W


 


Super Moons (full) 2026

January 3: 225,130 mi (362,312 km)
November 24: 224,170 mi (360,768 km)
December 24: 221,667 mi (356,740 km)

 

given for 00:00 UT

In Longitude (negative is western)

DateSizeAgeAnglePhase
13 Apr 202630.89'24.94-6.797°
14 Apr 202631.37'25.94-6.885°
15 Apr 202631.85'26.94-6.540°
10 May 202630.42'22.51-7.002°
11 May 202630.85'23.51-7.546°
12 May 202631.34'24.51-7.695°
13 May 202631.86'25.51-7.381°
14 May 202632.37'26.51-6.565°
22 May 202632.03'5.176.635°
23 May 202631.56'6.177.101°
24 May 202631.11'7.177.159°
25 May 202630.71'8.176.868°
07 Jun 202630.39'21.17-7.053°
08 Jun 202630.79'22.17-7.626°
09 Jun 202631.25'23.17-7.834°
10 Jun 202631.75'24.17-7.603°
11 Jun 202632.25'25.17-6.885°
19 Jun 202632.20'3.886.768°
20 Jun 202631.68'4.887.364°
21 Jun 202631.18'5.887.508°
22 Jun 202630.71'6.887.253°
23 Jun 202630.31'7.886.670°
05 Jul 202630.48'19.88-6.530°
06 Jul 202630.82'20.88-7.017°
07 Jul 202631.21'21.88-7.189°
08 Jul 202631.64'22.88-6.986°
18 Jul 202631.76'3.606.894°
19 Jul 202631.25'4.607.142°
20 Jul 202630.77'5.606.982°
21 Jul 202630.35'6.606.469°
19 Nov 202630.64'9.71-6.939°
20 Nov 202631.11'10.71-7.238°
21 Nov 202631.62'11.71-7.063°
01 Dec 202631.73'21.716.670°
02 Dec 202631.32'22.716.898°
03 Dec 202630.93'23.716.823°
04 Dec 202630.59'24.716.497°
16 Dec 202630.14'6.96-6.743°
17 Dec 202630.53'7.96-7.511°
18 Dec 202630.98'8.96-7.903°
19 Dec 202631.49'9.96-7.840°
20 Dec 202632.03'10.96-7.269°
29 Dec 202631.92'19.967.182°
30 Dec 202631.41'20.967.556°
31 Dec 202630.94'21.967.540°

 

In Latitude (negative is southern)

DateSizeAgeAnglePhase
06 Apr 202629.57'17.946.680°
07 Apr 202629.51'18.946.724°
08 Apr 202629.52'19.946.480°
20 Apr 202633.00'2.51-6.607°
21 Apr 202632.84'3.51-6.460°
03 May 202629.54'15.516.518°
04 May 202629.46'16.516.605°
05 May 202629.44'17.516.405°
17 May 202633.33'0.17-6.476°
18 May 202633.34'1.17-6.448°
30 May 202629.51'13.176.463°
31 May 202629.43'14.176.568°
13 Jun 202633.11'27.17-6.427°
14 Jun 202633.36'28.17-6.531°
26 Jun 202629.56'10.886.527°
27 Jun 202629.45'11.886.652°
28 Jun 202629.41'12.886.490°
10 Jul 202632.49'24.88-6.447°
11 Jul 202632.86'25.88-6.669°
12 Jul 202633.13'26.88-6.449°
23 Jul 202629.74'8.606.610°
24 Jul 202629.56'9.606.784°
25 Jul 202629.47'10.606.664°
06 Aug 202631.97'22.60-6.454°
07 Aug 202632.28'23.60-6.764°
08 Aug 202632.55'24.60-6.663°
19 Aug 202630.03'6.276.582°
20 Aug 202629.77'7.276.838°
21 Aug 202629.60'8.276.792°
22 Aug 202629.52'9.276.456°
03 Sep 202632.04'21.27-6.743°
04 Sep 202632.20'22.27-6.729°
16 Sep 202630.00'4.866.742°
17 Sep 202629.76'5.866.785°
18 Sep 202629.61'6.866.531°
30 Sep 202632.24'18.86-6.599°
01 Oct 202632.32'19.86-6.660°
13 Oct 202630.13'2.346.547°
14 Oct 202629.88'3.346.667°
15 Oct 202629.68'4.346.483°
27 Oct 202632.60'16.34-6.403°
28 Oct 202632.75'17.34-6.553°
09 Nov 202630.10'29.346.404°
10 Nov 202629.88'0.716.566°
11 Nov 202629.70'1.716.425°
24 Nov 202632.95'14.71-6.524°
06 Dec 202630.03'26.716.414°
07 Dec 202629.82'27.716.594°
08 Dec 202629.65'28.716.474°
21 Dec 202632.55'11.96-6.593°
22 Dec 202632.99'12.96-6.555°

Source: NASA/GSFC

 


Latest Mission Poster

Thanks to NASA's exquisite photo material.

Original PNG is 10k pixels wide.

 

Latest Deepsky Image

2026-07-06, TS-71SDQ (450mm), Uranus-C (IMX585), LPR II, 446 x 30 sec (3h44m)

 

Random Mini Poster

NGC 6823 & Sh2-86 in Vulpecula

View all Mini Posters

 

Latest Planetary Image

2026-01-07, Celestron 8, Uranus-C, UV/IR-Cut filter

 

Latest Movie

2023-11-23, Celestron 8, Uranus-C, UV/IR-Cut filter, exposure duration 1h42m

 

 

Latest Lunar Image

C8, IMX178, 1.6x Ortho barlow, IR642nm filter (Mar 26, 2026).

 

Latest Astro Poster

Samyang 135mm, Uranus-C, dual-band and LPR filters.

 

Latest Infographic

Celestron 8 XLT, Uranus-C, UV/IR filter

 

Latest Lunar Poster

Celestron 8 XLT, Uranus-C, UV/IR filter

 

Lunar Impressions Feb/Mar 2026

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Click to enlarge or show full screen

 


 

 

Source: apod.nasa.gov

Mirror: star.ucl.ac.uk

Latest STScI News Release

NASA's Hubble Tracks New Decagon Encircling Saturn’s South Pole

Side-by-side comparison of two views of the gas giant Saturn, labeled “August 29, 2025” at the top left corner. At left is a straight-on view of Saturn, a globe with pale yellow horizontal bands at the equator and orange and pink at the mid-latitudes. Some bands towards the north and south pole have a light blue hue. There are prominent horizontal rings circling at the equator. At right, labeled “Saturn’s south pole,” the south-polar view of Saturn shows concentric bands in its atmosphere, mostly tan and orange, surrounding a dark central region that has a 10-sided outline. A small, dashed circle at the very center of the pole with an “X” inside denotes missing data.

September 02, 2026

Side-by-side comparison of two views of the gas giant Saturn, labeled “August 29, 2025” at the top left corner. At left is a straight-on view of Saturn, a globe with pale yellow horizontal bands at the equator and orange and pink at the mid-latitudes. Some bands towards the north and south pole have a light blue hue. There are prominent horizontal rings circling at the equator. At right, labeled “Saturn’s south pole,” the south-polar view of Saturn shows concentric bands in its atmosphere, mostly tan and orange, surrounding a dark central region that has a 10-sided outline. A small, dashed circle at the very center of the pole with an “X” inside denotes missing data.

Source: stsci.edu/news

Tonight's Sky

Has been moved to YouTube

 

Latest JWST News

Webb reveals dust and water surviving in the extreme environment around the Milky Way’s central black hole

IRS 3 Field (NIRCam and MIRI image)

11 August 2026

Using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers have discovered that dust and water can form and survive surprisingly close to the supermassive black hole at the centre of our Milky Way galaxy. The observations reveal that the evolved star IRS 3 continues to enrich its surroundings with newly formed material despite the intense radiation environment around Sagittarius A*.


Source: esawebb.org

JWST Picture of the Month

Striking star clusters and irregular clumps

https://cdn.esawebb.org/archives/images/thumb350x/potm2608a.jpg

27 August 2026
The latest ESA/Webb Picture of the Month is a new, infrared look into the strange final phase of a galactic merger. Arp 263, an irregular galaxy, lies in the constellation Leo at a relatively nearby distance of around 25 million light-years. Originally discovered in 1784 and also catalogued as NGC 3239, this galaxy was included in American astronomer Halton Arp’s Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies in 1966, as possibly one of the most remarkable and strange galaxies in the sample. Arp categorised it with the galaxies featuring “irregular clumps”. In 2023, the galaxy was featured in an image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, where these clumps are revealed to be bright nebulae between the galaxy’s dense clouds of gas, where stars are forming. Arp 263 is believed to result from a past galactic merger. Apart from its unusual distorted shape, astronomers have noticed a few features that point to this. …


Source: esawebb.org

NASA Image of the Day

Lunar Occultation of Venus

On Wednesday, June 17, skywatchers across the United States—and parts of Canada—enjoyed a rare event: a daytime lunar occultation of Venus. A lunar occultation occurs when the Moon moves directly in front of another celestial object from our viewpoint on Earth, briefly hiding it from sight.

Click to enlarge or show full screen

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 14:16 GMT


Source: www.nasa.gov

Astro Weather

 

 

All reviewed Sightron Binoculars

 

 

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).

 

Astronomy Video Clips

Now on YouTube

 


Lunar Imaging e-brochure (PDF 94.6 MB)

 

EAA e-brochure (PDF 76.4 MB)
In work. Pre-release for feedbacks.

 

Planetary Imaging e-brochure (PDF 17.4 MB)
In work. Pre-release for feedbacks.

 


Recent

1. This web site is target of "Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)" attack intended by criminals to exhaust the resources of a hosting server. It is a high frequency random access to all web files in the site directory, a classic tactic, aiming to degrade or crash hosting infrastructure. This website is the entry point, but the real goal is to overwhelm the web server or shared hosting environment. Most of the attacking IP addresses originate in the PRC, either on purpose to blame China or it is real. My provider, Hostgator, does not seem to be interested in deeper investigation, instead suggesting the service of "Cloudflare". Even if the contents of the site isn't sensitive, the attack is criminal calling for harsh punishment. This attack also falsifies the visitor access log, wondering what this human garbage is trying to accomplish besides display of sick brains.

2. Certain people appear to enjoy filling forms with random letters for no purpose but insane self-satisfaction. Most of this stupid folks leave their IP addresses which are forwarded to their provider companies. All so received forms are automatically deleted. Sadly, the world is overfilled with idiots, trolls and criminals. This is a public web site without any sensitive data. No need for these irrational displays.

3. Now in the process of changing all large images to AVIF or WEBP format resulting in considerably reduced file size and download time hardly sacrificing quality as compared with JPEG.

 

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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:
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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.

 



Major Site Updates

 


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

 


Total Exoplanet Count: 6354

Kepler/K2: 3336 planets
TESS: 929 planets
Latest exoplanet around:  
as of 2026-08-20

ConstellationDraco
Distance6.84 parsec (22.32ly)
Magnitude9.70 vis.
Mass0.25 xSun
Radius0.28 xSun
Temperature3379°K
Known planet(s)1
View in Database | Star Chart | DSS IR Image 🔗

 


Acton Sky Portal Observatory 2
Anglo-Australian Telescope 34
Apache Point Observatory 2
Arecibo Observatory 3
Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) 1
Bohyunsan Optical Astronomical Observatory 26
Calar Alto Observatory 29
Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory 5
CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite (CHEOPS) 4
CoRoT 35
European Southern Observatory 3
European Space Agency (ESA) Gaia Satellite 15
Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory 6
Gemini Observatory 14
Haleakala Observatory 2
HATNet 67
HATSouth 73
Haute-Provence Observatory 69
Hubble Space Telescope 6
Infrared Survey Facility 1
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) 3
K2 549
KELT 10
KELT-North 7
KELT-South 4
Kepler 2787
Kitt Peak National Observatory 1
KMTNet 139
KOINet 1
La Silla Observatory 310
Large Binocular Telescope Observatory 3
Las Campanas Observatory 34
Leoncito Astronomical Complex 1
Lick Observatory 36
Lowell Observatory 2
Mauna Kea Observatory 10
McDonald Observatory 33
MEarth Project 2
MOA 34
Multiple Facilities 30
Multiple Observatories 355
NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) 1
Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) 22
OGLE 111
Okayama Astrophysical Observatory 36
Palomar Observatory 2
Paranal Observatory 39
Parkes Observatory 2
Qatar 10
Roque de los Muchachos Observatory 40
South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SAR 1
SPECULOOS Southern Observatory 2
Spitzer Space Telescope 4
Subaru Telescope 12
SuperWASP 122
SuperWASP-North 5
SuperWASP-South 32
Teide Observatory 1
The 2 (Two) Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) 1
Thueringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg 6
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) 929
TrES 5
United Kingdom Infrared Telescope 2
University of Canterbury Mt John Observatory 1
Very Long Baseline Array 1
W. M. Keck Observatory 193
WASP-South 11
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) Sat 1
Winer Observatory 1
Xinglong Station 2
XO 6
Yunnan Astronomical Observatory 3
Zwicky Transient Facility 2


 

⎘

Next NEO Approach

 

⎘

Next Meteor Shower

September Epsilon Perseids
5 Sep - 21 Sep, Peak: 9/9
Radiant: Star Chart, Rating: medium

 

Random Objects

 

Wei (26 Eps Sco) in Sco [HIP 82396]

Distance: 65 light-years, Magnitude: 2.29

Epsilon Scorpii represents the State of Ceara on the flag of Brazil.

Star Chart | DSS IR Image 🔗

 

SCR 1845-6357A () in Pavo

Distance: 13 light-years, Magnitude: 17.4

SCR 1845-6357A is a faint red dwarf star with an estimated mass of 7% solar. It has a brown dwarf companion, a T-dwarf with an estimated mass between 40 and 50 times the mass of Jupiter at a distance of 4.1 AU.

Star Chart | DSS IR Image 🔗

 

M109 (Galaxy) in Ursa Major

Magnitude: 10.6

This member of the Ursa Major Galaxy Cloud is about 84 million light years away, and running away from us at an approximate speed of 1142 km/s. It has companion galaxies that may be contributing to M109's bright central bar.

Star Chart | DSS IR Image 🔗

 

Canes Venatici (northern), area rank: 38

Located south of the Big Dipper. Way back this constellation was a part of Ursa Major. In the 17th century, it was given independency as a new constellation by astronomer Johannes Hevelius. A large and a small galaxy, M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy), appear to be connected.

Star Chart

 

273P/Pons-Gambart

Discovered on June 21, 1827 by Jean-Louis Pons and Jean-Félix Adolphe Gambart, it was lost and was not recovered until November 7, 2012, when amateur astronomer Rob Matson discovered a comet, and it was identified that the orbital calculations for Pons-Gambart were completely wrong. [Wikipedia]

 

 

Mr Spock (Asteroid)

Semi-major: 3.01688 AU, Size: 21 km

Discovered on August 16th 1971, asteroid 2309 Mr. Spock (formerly dubbed 1971 QX1) is a 21.29 km wide main belt asteroid orbiting the sun with moderate eccentricity between Mars and Jupiter once in 5.23 years. It rotates around its axis in 6.722 hours. The asteroid's name does not come directly from the character of Mr. Spock in Star Trek, but rather indirectly from the discoverer's (James B. Gibson's) male cat who was named after the science fiction character.

 

 

Moon (moon of Earth)

The presence of the Moon causes the tides and moderates Earth's wobble on its axis, leading to a relatively stable climate over billions of years. From Earth, we always see the same face of the Moon because the Moon rotates once on its own axis in the same time that it travels once around Earth. The light areas of the Moon are known as the highlands. The dark features, called maria (Latin for seas), are impact basins that were filled with lava between 4 and 2.5 billion years ago.

 

 

HD 31527 b (in Lepus)

Mass: 0.0329 xJup
SMA: 0.1254 AU
Period: 16.5535 days
Distance: 38.4473 parsec
Category: Hot Neptunian
ESI: 0.22

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.

 

 

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