Sky
Which Planets Are Visible Tonight?
Rise, transit, and set times, evening sky positions, brightness, and a plain-language visibility verdict for Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
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Date, location, and options
Any date from 1800 to 2050, in your device's time zone.
-90 to 90, north positive.
-180 to 180, east positive.
Sky positions and verdicts are evaluated at this moment.
Used only with "A specific local time". 12:00-23:59 falls on the chosen evening; 00:00-11:59 on the following morning.
Tonight's planets
| Planet | Rise | Transit | Transit altitude | Set |
|---|
How this tool works
Planet positions come from E. M. Standish's published Keplerian elements for approximate planetary positions (JPL, Table 1, fitted for the years 1800 to 2050), with the Kepler equation solved by Newton iteration and one light-time correction step. Sidereal time, coordinate transformations, and the mean obliquity follow Jan Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms (2nd edition, chapters 12, 13, and 22); brightness uses the visual magnitude formulas of the Astronomical Almanac method given in Meeus chapter 41, with the Saturn ring tilt from chapter 45. Delta T is interpolated from published historical values. Everything is computed in your browser: coordinates, dates, and results never leave this page, and location access is requested only if you choose "Use my location" (on denial, simply type coordinates).
Honest accuracy: positions are geocentric and typically within 1 to 2 arcminutes of full ephemeris values over 1800 to 2050, with worst cases near 10 arcminutes for Jupiter and Saturn (the published error bounds of the element fit). Rise, transit, and set times use the standard refraction altitude of -0.5667 degrees and are usually within about 1 to 2 minutes at mid-latitudes; low-altitude refraction, your local horizon, and topocentric parallax (up to about half an arcminute) are not modelled. Magnitudes are typically within about 0.3; Venus near its crescent phases and Saturn near ring-plane crossings can be a few tenths further off. The "near constellation" label is approximate, based on where the planet's ecliptic longitude falls among the zodiacal constellation boundaries. Rise and set are listed for the selected calendar date in the time zone your device reports, and events near midnight can display under a neighbouring date when shown in UTC. At polar latitudes the tool reports honestly when the Sun or a planet stays above or below the horizon all day instead of inventing times. Verdicts are practical guidance for casual stargazing; all values are approximate and unsuitable for navigation or any safety-critical use.