What is the moon phase tonight?

The Tonight's Sky planner shows the current moon phase name (e.g. Waxing Crescent, Full Moon), illumination percentage, and rise/set times for your location.

Is the sky good for stargazing tonight?

ExoAtlas calculates a 0–100 sky-quality score combining cloud cover from the NOAA GFS weather forecast, your Bortle dark-sky class, moon illumination, and the number of bright planets up. A score above 75 means great conditions; below 35 means it's probably not worth going out.

What is a Bortle class?

The Bortle Dark-Sky Scale (1–9) rates the darkness of the night sky at your location. Class 1 is the darkest (rural, pristine sky) and class 9 is the brightest (inner city). ExoAtlas uses it to estimate limiting magnitude and recommend appropriate telescope targets.

Is ExoAtlas Tonight's Sky free?

Yes. The core planner — planet visibility, moon phase, conjunctions, weather score, altitude chart, and telescope target list for tonight — is completely free with no account required. Pro members ($5/month) unlock a 14-day forecast, hourly cloud-cover overlay, iCal export, and email/push sky alerts.

Tonight's Sky — Free Stargazing Planner: Planets, Moon & Weather

Q: Which planets are visible tonight?

ExoAtlas Tonight's Sky computes real-time planet positions for your exact location and shows which planets are above the horizon tonight, along with their rise, transit, and set times and maximum altitude.

Set your location to begin

No location saved

Sky Chart

Limiting magnitude

Deeper catalogs reveal more stars but render slower.

— —

Deep-sky key

Galaxy
Globular
Open cluster
Planetary nebula
Nebula / SNR

Drag from sunset to sunrise. Stars fade in with twilight — the Sun's altitude and your Bortle class set the limiting magnitude, and dot size scales with each star's brightness. Hover any star or planet for details; click a planet to view it in the catalog.

Showing 110 Messier Objects. Upgrade to Pro for the full 1,800+ Deep Space Object (NGC/IC/Caldwell) catalog.

Altitude Tonight

Plotting altitude curves…

Daylight Civil twilight (0° to −6°) Nautical twilight (−6° to −12°) Astronomical twilight (−12° to −18°) Night (below −18°) Solar midnight

Altitude curves clipped at the horizon. Shading shows twilight zones by Sun altitude.

Weather

—

Fetching local forecast…

Moon Phase

—

Illumination: —
Rise: —
Set: —
Interference: —

Computing moon phase…

Deep-Sky Targets Tonight

—

Scoring deep-sky catalogue…

Astrophotography Exposure Planner

Imaging Conditions Tonight

Astrophotography Session Planner

Pro

Plan an entire night, not just one target

Add multiple targets from the Exposure Planner to a drag-and-drop timeline aligned to your local sunset, astronomical twilight, and sunrise. ExoAtlas honours each target's rise/set times and your Bortle class, warns you about overlaps, and exports the night plan as PNG or PDF.

Drag-and-drop timeline blocks for each target
Right-click any block to edit start / end / target
Overlap detection with non-blocking warnings
Per-target rise/set guardrails — can't drag outside visibility
Export as PNG or PDF, ready for the field

Upgrade to Pro

Sun, Moon, and Planets

—

Body	Rises	Transits	Sets	Max alt	Mag
Loading tonight's ephemeris…

Times shown in your local timezone. Max alt < 0° means below the horizon all night.

Naked-Eye Picks Tonight

—

Picking targets…

Conjunctions This Week

Pairs within 10° of each other

Scanning the week ahead…

14-Day Forecast

Pro

See further into the future

Pro members unlock a 14-day forecast, weather/cloud cover overlay, iCal export of upcoming events, and email/push alerts when the skies clear up before a major conjunction or planetary opposition.

14-day planet visibility forecast
Hourly cloud cover & transparency overlay
iCal export — drop tonight's events into your calendar
Smart alerts ("Jupiter–Venus conjunction in 3 days, clear skies expected")

Upgrade to Pro

What can you see in the night sky tonight?

ExoAtlas Tonight's Sky is a free stargazing planner that answers the question every observer asks: is tonight worth going outside? Set your location and it combines real local weather, the current moon phase, and your Bortle sky-quality class into a single 0–100 score, then shows you exactly which planets are visible tonight, when they rise, transit, and set, and which deep-sky targets sit highest while the sky is darkest.

Plan tonight in a few seconds

Tonight's score — a quick verdict from clouds, moonlight, and darkness.
Planets tonight — rise, transit, and set times for the naked-eye planets, the Sun, and the Moon.
Moon phase tonight — illumination and the moon-free dark window for faint targets.
Deep-sky targets — galaxies, nebulae, and clusters ranked by how well they're placed right now.
Conjunctions this week — close planetary and lunar pairings worth a look.
Astrophotography planner — exposure and session guidance based on tonight's imaging conditions.

Keep exploring ExoAtlas

Want to go further? Watch the sky and Solar System update in real time with the Live 3D View, browse detailed facts and orbits for thousands of objects in the object catalog, count down to the next solar and lunar eclipses, and track upcoming missions on the launch calendar. For orbital mechanics and time conversions, see the full set of free astronomy tools.