Tonight,
look up.
A location, a moment, your equipment. Find targets to explore and viewing windows to get started.
The Moon, planets and 110 Messier objects: suggestions account for altitude, darkness and moonlight.
Ideas for your session.
Ideas for observing: clouds, turbulence, light pollution and local obstacles can change what you see. Photographs illustrate the objects; they do not represent the view through an eyepiece.
No target meets the criteria during this period. Try another time, a longer duration or a lower minimum altitude if your horizon allows it.
Moon and planets
Windows after civil twilight, with an object high enough and far enough from the Sun.
The deep sky
The highest-ranked targets combine altitude, available time, difficulty and the Moon’s effect.
How are suggestions chosen?
- Positions are calculated for your location with Astronomy Engine 2.1.19. A sample is taken every 10 minutes. Conservative windows require at least 20 minutes and an altitude above the selected threshold at both ends of each interval.
- For Messier objects, the Sun must be at −18° or below; for the Moon and planets, at −6° or below. These thresholds help prepare a session and do not define every possible observing condition.
- Lunar and planetary targets are selected from a solar elongation of 15°. At least 1% of the Moon’s apparent surface must be illuminated. The Sun is never suggested.
- Equipment is matched to the Messier catalogue’s guidance, using the first aperture in each recommended range. For naked-eye deep-sky viewing, only M31, M44 and M45 are suggested, under a very dark sky. Uranus requires at least binoculars here, Neptune an 80 mm instrument. These editorial choices do not guarantee detection.
- The ranking favours altitude and long windows, then low difficulty. For deep-sky objects, it reduces priority when the Moon is above the horizon, illuminated and close to the target, especially for galaxies and nebulae. It does not simulate sky background brightness.
- “Suggested time” means the best sample according to this ranking within the retained windows; it is not necessarily the meridian transit. Directions refer to that moment. Durations are rounded in steps of 10 minutes.
- Standard refraction is applied to targets. Terrain, weather, actual horizon obstruction, experience and visual acuity are not modelled. Available period: 1900–2100. Times and seasonal clock changes follow the selected time zone.
Calculations: Astronomy Engine · Don Cross · MIT. Data and photographs: Messier catalogue credits ; J2000 coordinates adapted from volume II, NASA HEASARC andOpenNGC · Mattia Verga, adaptations licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Adapted data. Planet images: Solar System trail illustrations. Moon: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University. Cities: GeoNames, CC BY 4.0, selection dated 18 October 2026.
Do not point an instrument at the Sun without suitable, checked solar equipment. Find observing methods in volume I.