What's actually in the sky tonight?
"Tonight's sky" isn't one fixed thing — it changes every night as the Earth rotates, the Moon moves through its phases, planets shift along the ecliptic, and the Sun's activity flares up or quiets down. This page pulls live data from NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, NASA's ISS orbital feed, Open-Meteo, and a real astronomical ephemeris to compute what is genuinely above your horizon right now — not a templated best-guess.
Enter your city or state above and the Tonight's Sky Report will show your current stargazing conditions, moon phase and illumination, which naked-eye planets are up, the next active meteor shower, whether the Milky Way core is drowned out by moonlight, the next visible ISS pass, live aurora probability for your latitude, and your local cloud cover.
How to read tonight's sky report
Stargazing quality
Rated Excellent, Good, Fair, or Poor based on the forecast cloud cover during the darkest hours after astronomical twilight. Under 10% cloud is Excellent; 40–70% starts to hide fainter objects; over 70% and only the Moon and brightest planets will punch through.
Moon phase
The Moon is the single biggest variable in what you can see. A full moon washes out the Milky Way and dims all but the brightest meteors. A new moon or slim crescent gives you the darkest sky. The report shows the exact phase name and percent illuminated tonight. For a full month-by-month look, see the Moon Phase Calendar.
Visible planets
Venus is the brightest — often mistaken for an aircraft or UFO low in the west after sunset or east before sunrise. Jupiter is second brightest and holds steady all night when it's up. Mars glows distinctly orange-red. Saturn is fainter and steadier. The report only lists planets currently above the horizon after dark for your coordinates. For the full rundown, see Visible Planets Tonight.
Meteor activity
There are around a dozen major meteor showers each year. Peaks matter — the Perseids in August, Geminids in December, and Quadrantids in January each throw 50–120 meteors per hour under a dark sky. The report shows the next active shower and how many days until its peak.
Milky Way
The bright Milky Way core is best seen from April through October in the northern hemisphere, from a Bortle 4 or darker site, when the Moon is below the horizon or under 30% illuminated. The report tells you whether moonlight will muffle it tonight.
International Space Station
The ISS orbits Earth every 90 minutes and only becomes visible when it's overhead and sunlit while your sky is dark — the "terminator" window right after sunset or before sunrise. When conditions line up, it crosses the sky in three to five minutes as the brightest slow-moving object up there. The report shows the next visible pass time for your city.
Aurora
Aurora visibility isn't a yes/no thing — it depends on the Kp index (how disturbed Earth's magnetic field is) and your geomagnetic latitude (how close you are to the auroral oval). The report compares live Kp to your latitude and tells you whether aurora is genuinely possible or unlikely right now. For deeper detail see the Live Aurora Dashboard.
Best time and place to look
For anything fainter than the Moon and Venus, three rules apply — in this order:
Get away from city lights
A 30-minute drive to a Bortle 4 site reveals ten times more stars.
Let your eyes adapt
Give it 20–30 minutes in the dark; avoid white phone screens (use red-light mode).
Look after astronomical twilight ends
Roughly 90 minutes after sunset — and, for meteors and the Milky Way, after midnight when the sky is darkest.
Frequently asked
Do I need a telescope?
No. Everything the report highlights — Moon, planets, ISS, meteors, aurora, Milky Way — is a naked-eye object. A pair of 7×50 or 10×50 binoculars is the single best upgrade before a telescope; you'll see Jupiter's four Galilean moons, lunar craters, star clusters, and Andromeda.
What about tomorrow night?
The report recalculates every time you load it. Cloud forecasts refresh hourly; aurora and solar data refresh every 10 minutes; ISS passes update as new orbital elements are released.
Why did it say "Location not found"?
The geocoder searches globally by city name. If a very small town isn't in the database, try the nearest larger city or add the country — most of the world is covered including small towns in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, the E.U., and Asia.
Sky tonight by country
23,178 city sky reports across 230 countries. Pick a country to see its cities, or search above for any location on Earth.
- Afghanistan , 88 city reports
- Aland Islands , 1 city report
- Albania , 34 city reports
- Algeria , 201 city reports
- American Samoa , 1 city report
- Andorra , 1 city report
- Angola , 139 city reports
- Antigua and Barbuda , 2 city reports
- Argentina , 326 city reports
- Armenia , 32 city reports
- Aruba , 2 city reports
- Australia , 186 city reports
- Austria , 70 city reports
- Azerbaijan , 78 city reports
- Bahamas , 7 city reports
- Bahrain , 2 city reports
- Bangladesh , 111 city reports
- Barbados , 1 city report
- Belarus , 131 city reports
- Belgium , 83 city reports
- Belize , 9 city reports
- Benin , 59 city reports
- Bermuda , 1 city report
- Bhutan , 11 city reports
- Bolivia , 67 city reports
- Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba , 1 city report
- Bosnia and Herzegovina , 70 city reports
- Botswana , 49 city reports
- Brazil , 1320 city reports
- British Virgin Islands , 1 city report
- Brunei , 5 city reports
- Bulgaria , 118 city reports
- Burkina Faso , 76 city reports
- Burundi , 21 city reports
- Cabo Verde , 10 city reports
- Cambodia , 75 city reports
- Cameroon , 111 city reports
- Canada , 329 city reports
- Cayman Islands , 2 city reports
- Central African Republic , 46 city reports
- Chad , 63 city reports
- Chile , 141 city reports
- China , 1209 city reports
- Colombia , 356 city reports
- Comoros , 7 city reports
- Cook Islands , 1 city report
- Costa Rica , 29 city reports
- Croatia , 50 city reports
- Cuba , 113 city reports
- Curacao , 2 city reports
- Cyprus , 14 city reports
- Czechia , 159 city reports
- Democratic Republic of the Congo , 112 city reports
- Denmark , 87 city reports
- Djibouti , 7 city reports
- Dominica , 1 city report
- Dominican Republic , 71 city reports
- Ecuador , 90 city reports
- Egypt , 101 city reports
- El Salvador , 32 city reports
- Equatorial Guinea , 10 city reports
- Eritrea , 11 city reports
- Estonia , 22 city reports
- Eswatini , 9 city reports
- Ethiopia , 149 city reports
- Faroe Islands , 2 city reports
- Fiji , 11 city reports
- Finland , 131 city reports
- France , 556 city reports
- French Guiana , 7 city reports
- French Polynesia , 5 city reports
- Gabon , 30 city reports
- Gambia , 16 city reports
- Georgia , 45 city reports
- Germany , 440 city reports
- Ghana , 78 city reports
- Gibraltar , 1 city report
- Greece , 72 city reports
- Greenland , 2 city reports
- Grenada , 1 city report
- Guadeloupe , 8 city reports
- Guam , 2 city reports
- Guatemala , 97 city reports
- Guernsey , 1 city report
- Guinea , 57 city reports
- Guinea-Bissau , 23 city reports
- Guyana , 9 city reports
- Haiti , 35 city reports
- Honduras , 105 city reports
- Hong Kong , 4 city reports
- Hungary , 115 city reports
- Iceland , 5 city reports
- India , 1500 city reports
- Indonesia , 283 city reports
- Iran , 488 city reports
- Iraq , 88 city reports
- Ireland , 62 city reports
- Isle of Man , 3 city reports
- Israel , 36 city reports
- Italy , 265 city reports
- Ivory Coast , 398 city reports
- Jamaica , 24 city reports
- Japan , 578 city reports
- Jersey , 1 city report
- Jordan , 25 city reports
- Kazakhstan , 150 city reports
- Kenya , 112 city reports
- Kiribati , 2 city reports
- Kosovo , 24 city reports
- Kuwait , 6 city reports
- Kyrgyzstan , 46 city reports
- Laos , 31 city reports
- Latvia , 35 city reports
- Lebanon , 20 city reports
- Lesotho , 23 city reports
- Liberia , 20 city reports
- Libya , 81 city reports
- Liechtenstein , 1 city report
- Lithuania , 48 city reports
- Luxembourg , 5 city reports
- Macao , 1 city report
- Madagascar , 125 city reports
- Malawi , 34 city reports
- Malaysia , 207 city reports
- Maldives , 6 city reports
- Mali , 64 city reports
- Malta , 2 city reports
- Marshall Islands , 2 city reports
- Martinique , 5 city reports
- Mauritania , 53 city reports
- Mauritius , 8 city reports
- Mayotte , 3 city reports
- Mexico , 386 city reports
- Micronesia , 4 city reports
- Moldova , 46 city reports
- Monaco , 1 city report
- Mongolia , 33 city reports
- Montenegro , 13 city reports
- Morocco , 148 city reports
- Mozambique , 84 city reports
- Myanmar , 135 city reports
- Namibia , 40 city reports
- Nepal , 44 city reports
- Netherlands , 93 city reports
- New Caledonia , 6 city reports
- New Zealand , 63 city reports
- Nicaragua , 54 city reports
- Niger , 61 city reports
- Nigeria , 263 city reports
- North Korea , 90 city reports
- North Macedonia , 29 city reports
- Northern Mariana Islands , 2 city reports
- Norway , 79 city reports
- Oman , 29 city reports
- Pakistan , 312 city reports
- Palau , 1 city report
- Palestinian Territory , 19 city reports
- Panama , 24 city reports
- Papua New Guinea , 28 city reports
- Paraguay , 46 city reports
- Peru , 148 city reports
- Philippines , 457 city reports
- Poland , 427 city reports
- Portugal , 140 city reports
- Puerto Rico , 24 city reports
- Qatar , 8 city reports
- Republic of the Congo , 42 city reports
- Reunion , 12 city reports
- Romania , 268 city reports
- Russia , 931 city reports
- Rwanda , 25 city reports
- Saint Barthelemy , 1 city report
- Saint Helena , 1 city report
- Saint Kitts and Nevis , 1 city report
- Saint Lucia , 3 city reports
- Saint Martin , 1 city report
- Saint Pierre and Miquelon , 1 city report
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines , 1 city report
- Samoa , 3 city reports
- San Marino , 1 city report
- Sao Tome and Principe , 3 city reports
- Saudi Arabia , 111 city reports
- Senegal , 80 city reports
- Serbia , 69 city reports
- Seychelles , 2 city reports
- Sierra Leone , 38 city reports
- Singapore , 2 city reports
- Sint Maarten , 1 city report
- Slovakia , 84 city reports
- Slovenia , 28 city reports
- Solomon Islands , 4 city reports
- Somalia , 63 city reports
- South Africa , 310 city reports
- South Korea , 116 city reports
- South Sudan , 22 city reports
- Spain , 509 city reports
- Sri Lanka , 45 city reports
- Sudan , 82 city reports
- Suriname , 7 city reports
- Sweden , 140 city reports
- Switzerland , 67 city reports
- Syria , 73 city reports
- Taiwan , 39 city reports
- Tajikistan , 49 city reports
- Tanzania , 225 city reports
- Thailand , 278 city reports
- Timor Leste , 18 city reports
- Togo , 31 city reports
- Tonga , 1 city report
- Trinidad and Tobago , 8 city reports
- Tunisia , 97 city reports
- Turkey , 575 city reports
- Turkmenistan , 62 city reports
- Turks and Caicos Islands , 1 city report
- Tuvalu , 1 city report
- U.S. Virgin Islands , 2 city reports
- Uganda , 123 city reports
- Ukraine , 540 city reports
- United Arab Emirates , 26 city reports
- United Kingdom , 280 city reports
- United States , 204 city reports
- Uruguay , 44 city reports
- Uzbekistan , 102 city reports
- Vanuatu , 2 city reports
- Venezuela , 144 city reports
- Vietnam , 233 city reports
- Western Sahara , 6 city reports
- Yemen , 31 city reports
- Zambia , 85 city reports
- Zimbabwe , 41 city reports