Go Out:  Look Up!

A Guide to the Sky, Telescopes, and Telescope Programs

What is up Tonight?

(This page is almost always out of date., skip to the links below for external resources).

Almost everything is "up" tonight, if you're willing to observe from dusk to dawn.  We'll list things here that are visible after Sunset and rise within a couple hours afterward.

Note that the Moon is different every night, rising about 50 minutes later (and lying about 15 degrees further east every day).  Why does it change?

What's up for October 2018 ?

What's up tonight?  (Assuming tonight is October 2018).

Planets: Venus is the bright "star" in the low southwest at sunset. Jupiter, is the bright "star" to east of Venus towards the south.  Mars is the very bright orange "star" in the south east.  Saturn, is dimmer, but in between Jupiter and Mars.  The four planets draw out the Ecliptic Plane about as clearly as you'll ever see.  

The Summer Milky way is full bloom, but you'll need dark skies.

The Andromeda Galaxy and the Hercules Cluster are excellent scope targets, but in a dark sky you can see them both with the naked eye (if you know where to look). The Andromeda Galaxy is the farthest thing you can see with your naked eye (3 million light years away).

(there are a number of on-line resources available that are more detailed and up-to-date than the following list.  Finder charts and phone apps are also available to aid in finding "what's up tonight").  Please refer to the Links page and the links at the bottom of this page for a list of great resources.

There are plenty of phone "sky apps" that can help you find sky targets.

Solar Observing

The sun is up every day and visible from even the brightest, dirtiest sky.  Click here for more info on solar observing

Lunar Eclipses

Some comments on observing or shooting Lunar Eclipses

Viewing Location

Where are you?

The whole sky is up at all times.  Everything in it is up everyday.  So why can't you see it all at any time?  The sun washes out the sky during the day and, of course, the earth gets in the way.  The Earth does block out the Sun so that we can see the stars, but it does also block out how far to the south we can see.  The closer you get to the equator on earth, the less of the sky is permanently blocked out. From San Diego at 32 degrees North Latitude, we cannot see the sky closer than 32 degrees to the south celestial pole.  

Links

Some links to good targets tonight or this week:

Whole sky map of tonight’s sky with interesting targets at SkyMaps.com (scroll down to the Current Month to download a map)

Sky & Telescope’s This Week’s Sky at a Glance (overview of highlights)

Astronomy Magazine’s The Sky this Month and The Sky this Week

Tonight’s Sky (useful and thorough, but text-based.  Requires some knowledge)

Heaven’s Above: good information, include a whole sky chart for tonight

Free Planetarium Software:

Stellarium Free Planetarium Software

Questions or comments? Email:Jeff Martin