The planets, the Moon, the ISS and more — what's up there right now, and how to spot each one.
The honest answer is: it depends on where you are and when. The sky over Toronto tonight looks nothing like the sky over Sydney, and it shifts hour by hour as the Earth turns. So the fastest way to know what's actually up for you, right now is to let the tool do the math — enter your location and see tonight's sky at a glance. But if you want to know what to look for, here's what's up there most clear nights, and how to spot each one.
On most clear nights, a few of the five naked-eye planets are visible. Venus is the dazzling bright one, low in the west after sunset or the east before dawn. Jupiter is steady and brilliant — a cheap pair of binoculars shows its four largest moons as tiny dots. Saturn is fainter and golden, and its rings show in almost any small telescope. Mars glows a distinct orange, brightest around its oppositions (roughly every two years). Mercury is the trickiest, hugging the horizon in twilight for a week or two at a time.
The giveaway: planets shine with a steady light — they don't twinkle the way stars do. See which planets are visible from your location tonight → · for a deeper dive, the planet observing guide.
A bright, full Moon is gorgeous through binoculars — the craters along the terminator (the line between light and shadow) are razor-sharp — but it washes out faint galaxies and nebulae. A new or crescent Moon means dark skies, perfect for the Milky Way and deep-sky targets. Knowing the phase tells you what kind of night you're in for. Tonight's moon phase, rise and set times for your location →
The International Space Station crosses the sky as a steady, bright point gliding silently overhead for a few minutes, usually around dawn or dusk. It doesn't blink — if it's flashing, that's an aircraft. Passes happen on a predictable schedule for your exact location. See tonight's ISS passes for you → · or the full ISS & satellite guide.
Any night can bring a stray "shooting star," but several times a year the Earth passes through a comet's debris trail and the rate jumps — the Perseids in August and the Geminids in December are the best of the year. No equipment needed: just a dark sky, a reclining chair, and a little patience. See which meteor showers are active tonight →
The constellations overhead shift through the year — Orion rules winter evenings, the Summer Triangle marks warm nights, and the Milky Way arches overhead from a dark site in summer and autumn. The brightest stars (Sirius, Vega, Arcturus) show even from the middle of a city. How dark your sky is decides how much you'll see — our Bortle scale guide breaks that down. Tonight's best targets for your latitude →
None of this matters if it's cloudy — which is the whole reason this site exists. Enter your location and get the cloud forecast, the Moon, visible planets, ISS passes, meteor activity and a clear-sky score from 0–100, all in one glance, for tonight and the nights ahead. Free, no signup.