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

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Sun & Moon Today

JD 2461275  DoY 234  WoY 34
🔼05:09
🔽18:23

Ecl Long 149.8°
in Leo

Waxing gibbous
Age 9.87 d
Phase 120.3°
Ecl Long 270.1°
in Sagittarius

SSE

Observable comet count is 1957

Current exoplanet count is 6333

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

Jellyfish Nebula, IC 443

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

Hubble Solves Merger Mystery From Milky Way’s Early Years

An illustration of two galaxies in the midst of a collision against a dark, star-filled background. The collision takes up the middle third of the illustration. On the right, a larger galaxy is viewed at an angle from 11 o’clock to 4 o’clock, with a white-yellow core surrounded by mottled brown dust lanes and faint bluish spiral arms. To the left, a smaller, bright blue-white galaxy is stretched into a curved, hook-like shape as gravity distorts it. A broad, glowing bridge of pale blue gas and stars extends off the galaxy at the left, while wispy streams extend above and below the larger galaxy at the right. The words “Artist’s Concept” appear in the lower left corner.

August 17, 2026

An illustration of two galaxies in the midst of a collision against a dark, star-filled background. The collision takes up the middle third of the illustration. On the right, a larger galaxy is viewed at an angle from 11 o’clock to 4 o’clock, with a white-yellow core surrounded by mottled brown dust lanes and faint bluish spiral arms. To the left, a smaller, bright blue-white galaxy is stretched into a curved, hook-like shape as gravity distorts it. A broad, glowing bridge of pale blue gas and stars extends off the galaxy at the left, while wispy streams extend above and below the larger galaxy at the right. The words “Artist’s Concept” appear in the lower left corner.

Source: stsci.edu/news

Tonight's Sky

Has been moved to YouTube

 

Latest JWST News

JWST Picture of the Month

NASA Image of the Day

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

The author's first steps into video editing. They are about Deepsky & Lunar imaging, Milky Way & Constellations, Solar System, Apollo Missions, Artemis II and LROC.

 

Now also on YouTube

 


Lunar Imaging e-brochure (PDF 96.4 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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Registration

 

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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:
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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: 6333

Kepler/K2: 3333 planets
TESS: 917 planets
Latest exoplanet around:  
as of 2026-07-30

ConstellationCarina
Distance4,330.00 parsec (14,124.46ly)
Mass0.774 xSun
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 2784
Kitt Peak National Observatory 1
KMTNet 139
KOINet 1
La Silla Observatory 309
Large Binocular Telescope Observatory 3
Las Campanas Observatory 34
Leoncito Astronomical Complex 1
Lick Observatory 36
Lowell Observatory 2
Mauna Kea Observatory 9
McDonald Observatory 33
MEarth Project 2
MOA 33
Multiple Facilities 29
Multiple Observatories 354
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 39
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) 917
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

Aurigids
28 Aug - 5 Sep, Peak: 9/1
Radiant: Star Chart, Rating: bright

 

Random Objects

 

Polaris Australis (Sig Ser) in Ser [HIP 104382]

Distance: 270 light-years, Magnitude: 5.45

Sigma Octantis is also called 'Polaris Australis' for being the South Star and represents the State of Distrito Federal on the flag of Brazil. To an observer in the southern hemisphere, Sigma Octantis appears almost motionless and all the other stars in the Southern sky appear to rotate around it. It is part of a small "half hexagon" shape. It is over a degree away from the true south pole, and the south celestial pole is moving away from it due to precession of the equinoxes. The star is too dim for navigational purposes.

Star Chart | DSS IR Image 🔗

 

GJ 663 A (36 Ophiuchi A ) in Ophiuchus

Distance: 19 light-years, Magnitude: 5

36 Ophiuchi is a triple star system consisting of two nearly identical orange main sequence dwarves of spectral type K2/K1 and a tertiary star, an orange main sequence dwarf of spectral type K5. A and B orbit each other with a period of 568.9 years. With 0.992, the orbit is highy eccentric. Star C is separated from the A-B pair by 700 arcseconds, compared to a minimum of 4.6 arcsec for A-B, so it has a negligible effect on the movements of the A-B pair. Both A and B have active chromospheres. The A-B pair has 85% solar masses each and measure 82%/81% solar radii.

Star Chart | DSS IR Image 🔗

 

M17 (Cluster with Nebula) in Sagittarius

Magnitude: 6

From its position in space some 5,500 light years away, the 'Omega' nebula occupies a region of 40 light-years across, with its brightest portion covering a 15 light-year expanse. Like many nebulae, this giant complex of cosmic clouds of interstellar matter is a starforming region in the Sagittarius-Carina arm of our Milky Way.

Star Chart | DSS IR Image 🔗

 

Telescopium (southern), area rank: 57

Located south of Sagittarius with Corona Australis in between, this constellation can be low south in the evening sky of summer, but is not spectacular with its 3rd to 5th-magnitude stars. Created in the 18th century by astronomer Louis de Lacaille.

Star Chart

 

131P/Mueller 2 (2013)

Discovered on September 15, 1990 on an accidently taken photograph the periodic comet was last detected on 9 February 1991.

 

 

Raab (Asteroid)

Semi-major: 2.66641 AU, Size: 0 km

Discovered 1949 Aug. 22 by E. L. Johnson at Johannesburg. Named in honor of Herbert Raab (born 1969), author of the widely-used and acclaimed Astrometrica software package. Astrometrica has enabled many amateur astronomers to participate in their own astrometric programs on comets and minor planets. Raab is a software developer and is also president of the Linzer Astronomische Gemeinschaft, the oldest amateur association in Austria. Name proposed by B. G. Marsden and G. V. Williams.

 

 

Tethys (moon of Saturn)

Discovered in 1684, Tethys' density is 0.97 times that of liquid water, which suggests that Tethys is composed almost entirely of water ice plus a small amount of rock. Tethys has two prominent features, a giant impact crater (240 km wide Odysseus) and a great valley, Ithaca Chasma, running roughly from the north pole to the south pole, 100km wide.

 

 

HD 11755 b (in Cassiopeia)

Mass: 5.63 xJup
SMA: 1.09 AU
Period: 433.7 days
Distance: 235.045 parsec
Category: Hot Jovian
ESI: 0.08

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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