Sky Events & Planning

These tools tell you what is in the sky and when it is dark enough to see it. Each one works from your place and date, and says plainly when the Moon or twilight gets in the way.

Tools in this group

• Astronomical Twilight Calculator — Enter a place and a date to get civil, nautical and astronomical dawn and dusk, how long true night lasts and the best Moon-free hour for deep-sky objects.
• Eclipse Calendar — Choose a year to see every solar and lunar eclipse of that year, with times in your zone and a ten-year overview.
• Meteor Shower Calendar — Choose a year to get every annual meteor shower with its peak in UTC and your time zone, the Moon at the peak and the best showers for dark skies.
• Meteor Shower Tonight — Pick a place and a date to see which meteor showers are active tonight, the best hour to watch and about how many meteors you can expect.
• Milky Way Calendar — Pick a place and a year to see the Milky Way core season, the best months and the Moon-free nights.
• Next Lunar Eclipse — Pick a place to see the next eight lunar eclipses with contact times and whether the Moon is above your horizon.
• Next Solar Eclipse — Pick a place to see the next six solar eclipses and what you would see of each: timing, coverage and totality.
• Planets Visible Tonight — Pick a place and a date to see which planets are up in the dark, when, in which direction and how bright, with a sky chart you can move through the night.
• Stargazing Calendar — Pick a place and a month to see every night scored for darkness and Moonlight, with the five best nights.