What Can I See in the Night Sky Tonight? A Beginner's Guide to the Moon, Planets, Stars and Satellites
Step outside on a clear night and look up: a bright "star" low in the west, a light gliding silently overhead, a few patterns you half recognise. Almost everything worth seeing with your own eyes can be named with a little know-how, and none of it needs a telescope.
What is up tonight depends on where you are and on the date, so our Now & Here page works it out for your location: the Moon, the planets that are up while it is dark, a chart of your sky and the next visible space station passes. This guide explains what you are looking at.
Start with the Moon
The Sun always lights half of the Moon; as it orbits Earth we see more or less of that lit half, and the cycle of phases repeats about every 29.5 days.
- Crescent and first quarter (waxing): in the evening sky. A first-quarter Moon sets around the middle of the night.
- Full Moon: opposite the Sun, so it rises around sunset and stays up all night.
- Last quarter: rises around the middle of the night and is still up in the morning.
- New Moon: next to the Sun and out of sight. The nights around it are the darkest of the month.
A bright Moon washes out faint stars, the Milky Way and most meteors, but it is a fine target in itself, and it looks best not at full: around the quarters, low sunlight gives the craters near the line between day and night long shadows. Now & Here shows tonight's phase, how much of the Moon is lit and when it rises or sets for you.
The five planets you can see with your eyes
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are all easy to see with no equipment. Each moves around the Sun at its own pace, so they come and go, but most of the time at least one or two are up.
- Venus is the brightest thing in the night sky after the Moon. Its orbit lies inside Earth's, so it never strays more than about 47° from the Sun: you see it in the west after sunset or in the east before sunrise, never at midnight.
- Jupiter usually comes next, a steady, creamy-white light that can be up all night. Steady binoculars show its four large moons as tiny dots.
- Mars is orange-red. When Earth passes it, about every two years, it can rival Jupiter; on the far side of the Sun it looks like an ordinary star.
- Saturn is a steady, pale yellow light, about as bright as the brighter stars. Its rings need a small telescope.
- Mercury never gets more than about 28° from the Sun, so it shows up only low in the twilight, a few weeks at a time.
Now & Here lists these five for your location, with the hours each one is visible tonight (at least 10° above the horizon while the Sun is 6° or more below it) and how high it climbs, in which direction.
How to tell a planet from a star
- Twinkling. Stars are mere points, and turbulence in our air makes them twinkle. A planet shows a tiny disc, which smooths that out, so planets tend to shine steadily.
- Brightness. Sirius, the brightest star of the night sky, is magnitude −1.46; Venus and Jupiter are brighter still. A steady light that outshines everything around it is very probably a planet.
- Position. The planets stay close to the ecliptic, the path the Sun and Moon follow across the sky.
- Movement. Planets drift slowly against the fixed stars from week to week; "planet" comes from the Greek for "wanderer".
Bright stars and constellations
Astronomers divide the sky into 88 constellations. A few bright landmarks are enough to start, and which ones you see depends on the season and your latitude. Orion, with the three stars of its belt in a neat row, fills the evening sky from about December to March and can be seen from almost everywhere; from the northern hemisphere, follow the belt down to the left to reach Sirius. From northern latitudes, the Big Dipper points to Polaris, the North Star; in the southern hemisphere, the Southern Cross and its two bright Pointers are the landmarks.
The star chart in Now & Here shows your sky at this moment, with every star down to magnitude 5.3 from the Yale Bright Star Catalogue. The scale runs backwards: the bigger the number, the fainter the star. Under a truly dark sky the eye reaches about magnitude 6; from a city centre you may see only a few dozen stars.
Meteor showers
A meteor, or shooting star, is a grain of dust burning up high in the atmosphere. Several times a year Earth crosses a stream of dust left by a comet or an asteroid, and you get a meteor shower, its meteors all seeming to fly out of one point, the radiant.
- Perseids, peaking around 12–13 August, from comet Swift–Tuttle: NASA gives about 50 to 100 an hour under dark skies.
- Geminids, peaking around 13–14 December, from the asteroid 3200 Phaethon: up to about 120 an hour in perfect conditions.
- Others include the Quadrantids in January, the Lyrids in April and the Orionids in October.
Just lie back, take in a wide patch of sky and be patient. Showers are usually best after midnight, and best of all with the Moon down. The Sky calendar lists the main shower peaks month by month, with how much of the Moon is lit that night, and shows each one in 3D.
The space station and other satellites
A steady point of light that crosses the sky in a few minutes without blinking is a satellite. The brightest is the International Space Station, which on a good pass outshines every star. Satellites shine by reflected sunlight, so you see them mainly after dusk and before dawn, while they are still sunlit high above and the ground is dark. Now & Here lists the visible passes of the ISS and China's Tiangong over you in the next three days; our guide When will the ISS pass over me? explains how to catch one.
Light pollution and dark adaptation
A 2016 world atlas of night sky brightness found that more than 80% of the world's population, and more than 99% of people in the US and Europe, live under light-polluted skies, and that the Milky Way is hidden from more than a third of humanity. The Moon, the bright planets, the brightest stars and the ISS are still easy from a city. To see more:
- Get away from direct lights, even just into a dark corner of a garden or park.
- Give your eyes time: NASA suggests about 30 minutes in the dark.
- Keep your phone dim, or use a red light; one bright screen undoes much of the adaptation.
- Look slightly to one side of faint things: the edge of your vision is more sensitive in the dark.
When to look
The bright planets and stars come out once the Sun is about 6° below the horizon. The sky is fully dark only when the Sun is 18° down, typically an hour and a half or more after sunset at mid-latitudes; near midsummer at high latitudes it never gets fully dark. Satellites are best in the first hours after dusk and before dawn, meteors after midnight. Around full Moon, plan for the bright things; around new Moon, go for the Milky Way and the meteors.
Now & Here gives tonight's dark hours for where you are, from when the Sun is 6° down until dawn. It estimates your location from your network, or can use your device's exact position, which stays on your device. Open Now & Here and see what is up.
Frequently asked questions
Can I see planets without a telescope? Yes. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are all visible with the naked eye when they are above the horizon and away from the Sun's glare. Venus and Jupiter are brighter than any star.
What is the bright "star" I see soon after sunset? Very often Venus, low in the west, or Jupiter. If it shines steadily and is brighter than everything around it, it is almost certainly a planet. Now & Here shows which planets are up for you tonight.
What is the best time to look at the night sky? A clear night near new Moon, once the Sun is well below the horizon. Satellites such as the ISS are best in the first hours after dusk and before dawn; meteors are best after midnight.
Why can't I see many stars from the city? Artificial light scatters in the air and brightens the whole sky, which hides the fainter stars. More than 80% of the world's people live under light-polluted skies. Getting away from lights and letting your eyes adapt for about half an hour makes a big difference.
Explore it yourself: Now & Here · Sky calendar · Earth's orbit, live · Guided tour of the Solar System
Sources
- NASA Science, Moon Phases: the 29.5-day cycle and when each phase rises and sets. science.nasa.gov
- NASA Science, What's Up: Skywatching Tips from NASA. science.nasa.gov
- NASA Science, Perseids and Geminids: parent bodies, peak dates, hourly rates, and about 30 minutes for the eyes to adapt to the dark. Perseids · Geminids
- Falchi et al. (2016), The new world atlas of artificial night sky brightness, Science Advances 2, e1600377. doi:10.1126/sciadv.1600377
- NASA, Spot the Station: how to recognise the ISS and when it is visible. nasa.gov
Angles are as seen from Earth: the greatest distances of Venus and Mercury from the Sun in our sky are about 47° and 28°. Civil twilight ends when the Sun is 6° below the horizon and astronomical twilight when it is 18° below. Sirius's magnitude is the standard catalogue value; the meteor rates are NASA's figures for a dark sky with the radiant high, so most observers see fewer.