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

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Sun & Moon Today

JD 2461306  DoY 265  WoY 39
🔼05:32
🔽17:40

Ecl Long 179.9°
in Virgo

Waxing gibbous
Age 11.02 d
Phase 134.3°
Ecl Long 314.2°
in Capricorn

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

Heart & Soul Nebulae in Cas

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

STScI Scientists Part of Collaboration Receiving 2027 Berkeley Prize

A crowded galaxy field on a black background, with one large star dominating the image just right of center. Three areas are concentrated with larger white hazy blobs on the left, lower right, and upper right above the single star. Scattered between these areas are many smaller sources of light; some also have a hazy white glow, while many other are red or orange. Even without zooming in, different galaxy shapes are detectable, like spirals, ovals, and arcs.

September 17, 2026

A crowded galaxy field on a black background, with one large star dominating the image just right of center. Three areas are concentrated with larger white hazy blobs on the left, lower right, and upper right above the single star. Scattered between these areas are many smaller sources of light; some also have a hazy white glow, while many other are red or orange. Even without zooming in, different galaxy shapes are detectable, like spirals, ovals, and arcs.

Source: stsci.edu/news

Tonight's Sky

Has been moved to YouTube

 

Latest JWST News

Webb reveals stunning panorama of star formation

Star-forming region IC 348 (NIRCam image)

15 September 2026

This starry view of the nearby star-forming region IC 348 is one of the largest images from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope released to the public so far. Using Webb, astronomers searched IC 348 for brown dwarfs, which are less massive than the smallest stars. The researchers discovered brown dwarfs just twice the mass of Jupiter, bringing the study of these curious objects into a new mass range.


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

NASA's Chandra Finds Unusual Objects in Pinwheel Galaxy

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, scientists have discovered a new class of objects behaving unlike any they have seen before.

Click to enlarge or show full screen

Tue, 22 Sep 2026 15:44 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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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
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FOV Simulator
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Let's Astrophoto
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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

Daytime Sextantids
9 Sep - 9 Oct, Peak: 9/27
Radiant: Star Chart, Rating: bright

 

Random Objects

 

Deneb el Okab (17 Zet Aql) in Aql [HIP 93747]

Distance: 83 light-years, Magnitude: 2.99

Deneb el Okab, Arabic for 'the tail of the falcon' is the primary of a system of three stars. It is 2.4x more massive, 2.3x larger and 40 times more luminous than the sun. The star is no older than 150 million years and is rotating at 317 km/s stretching its equatorial radius over 30.7% greater than its polar radius.

Star Chart | DSS IR Image 🔗

 

GJ 169.1 A (Stein 2051) in Camelopadalis

Distance: 18 light-years, Magnitude: 11

Stein 2051 (Gliese 169.1, G 175-034, LHS 26/27) is a nearby binary star system, containing a red dwarf (component A) and a degenerated star, a white dwarf (component B), located in the constellation of Camelopardalis at about 18 light-years away. Stein 2051 B is the 6th nearest white dwarf after Sirius B, Procyon B, van Maanen's star, LP 145-141 and 40 Eridani B.

Star Chart | DSS IR Image 🔗

 

M66 (Galaxy) in Leo

Magnitude: 9.7

M66 is an intermediate spiral galaxy, 95000 light-years across with striking dust lanes and bright star clusters along sweeping spiral arms. M66 is part of the famous Leo Triplet, a small group of galaxies that also includes M65 and NGC 3628.

Star Chart | DSS IR Image 🔗

 

Bootes (northern), area rank: 13

Marked by the 1st-magnitude star Arcturus, this constellation resembles the shape of a necktie. Arcturus is found in the northern spring sky by drawing a curve southwards from the leftmost star of the handle of the Big Dipper.

Star Chart

 

153P/Ikeya-Zhang

Discovered in 2002, 153P/Ikeya-Zhang is a long-periodic comet with the longest known period (366.5 years) for returning comets. On March 18, 2002, the comet last passed perihelion and became the brightest comet since 1997 shining at 3.5 magnitudes. The comets aphelion distance is at over 100 AU away through the Kuiper Belt reaching into the innermost section of the Oort Cloud.

 

 

Flora (Asteroid)

Semi-major: 2.20122 AU, Size: 136 km

Discovered on October 18, 1847 by J. R. Hind , 8 Flora is a bright S-type main belt asteroid. Flora's spectrum indicates that its surface composition is a mixture of silicate rock (including pyroxene and olivine) and nickel-iron metal. Flora is the innermost known large asteroid, rotates around its axis in 12.8 hours and has a mass of 8.47x1018kg.

 

 

Rhea (moon of Saturn)

Discovered in 1672, Rhea is the second largest moon of Saturn, a small, cold, airless body that is very similar to sister moons Dione and Tethys. Rhea is three quarters ice and one quarter rock. Models suggest that Rhea could be capable of sustaining an internal liquid water ocean through heating by radioactive decay.

 

 

BD-10 3166 b (in Crater)

Mass: 0.59 xJup
SMA: 0.04 AU
Period: 3.48777 days
Distance: 84.4069 parsec
Category: Hot Jovian
ESI: 0.07

Star Chart | DSS IR Image 🔗

 

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App Web Site (Manual and Download)

 

 

3D Visualizations

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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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