What can I see tonight?

What is worth looking at tonight depends on three things: where you are, what the date is, and whether the Moon is up.

The bright things, most nights

On most evenings two or three planets are up. They are the easiest win in astronomy: brighter than almost every star, and they twinkle far less.

The MoonmoonNaked eyeVenusplanetNaked eyeJupiterplanetNaked eyeSaturnplanetNaked eyeMarsplanetNaked eyeThe Pleiades (Seven Sisters)open star clusterNaked eye

If it is properly dark

Away from streetlights, on a moonless night, these become possible — clusters most easily, then nebulae (faint clouds of gas and dust), then galaxies — and the Milky Way itself shows as a band of haze, which most people have never seen. Eyes need twenty minutes away from any screen to adjust, and keep improving for half an hour or more.

The Milky Wayspiral galaxyNaked eyeThe Andromeda Galaxy (M31)spiral galaxyNaked eyeThe Orion Nebulaemission nebulaNaked eyeThe Hercules Cluster (M13)globular star clusterBinocularsThe Beehive Cluster (Praesepe)open star clusterNaked eye

Things that only happen on particular nights

Eclipses, meteor showers, close pairings of two planets, a planet at its closest for the year.

• Eclipses, conjunctions and other sky events — what each one is, and what to expect
• My next eclipse of the Moon — computed for your location
• My next meteor shower — computed for your location

Taking a child out

Two objects is a good night. Four is too many.

🌙 Plan an evening outsideEvery object, one by one