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Tonight’s sky

When it gets dark, what the moon’s doing, and which planets are up — for planning a night under the stars.

Waxing gibbous · 100% lit

Bright moon — great for the Moon and planets; faint objects wash out.

Next 7 nights — tap a night to see it

  1. Tonight30 Jul99%
  2. Fri31 Jul97%
  3. Sat1 Aug92%
  4. Sun2 Aug86%
  5. Mon3 Aug77%
  6. Tue4 Aug68%
  7. Wed5 Aug57%

Darker nights (lower %) are best for galaxies and nebulae. Tap any night to see its darkness, moon, planets and ISS passes.

AthensEEST

‹Thursday 27 August›
all times EEST (local)

Darkness tonight

  • Sunset20:02
  • Civil twilight ends20:29
  • Nautical twilight ends21:01
  • Fully dark — a session can start21:35
  • First light — dark ends05:17
  • Nautical twilight (dawn)05:51
  • Civil twilight (dawn)06:24
  • Sunrise06:51

Moon

A bright 100%-lit moon is up through much of the night — best for the Moon, planets and bright targets; faint objects wash out.

Rises 19:43 · sets 05:51

Planets tonight (the eyepiece)

  • SaturnHigh in the small hours (around 03:55) — in the south.rises 21:43highest 03:55 (55°)sets 10:10
  • MarsHigh just before dawn (around 06:51) — in the east.rises 02:25highest 06:51 (50°)sets 17:10
  • JupiterLow just before dawn (around 06:51) — in the east, a bright evening/morning object.rises 05:04highest 06:51 (20°)sets 19:03
  • VenusLow in the evening twilight (around 20:02) — in the southwest, a bright evening/morning object.rises 10:39highest 20:02 (17°)sets 21:39

ISS passes (naked eye)

ISS pass times are unavailable right now — The ISS orbit data is out of date — check back later.

Coming up

  • Partial lunar eclipse28 August · todayA shadow crosses part of the Moon — visible wherever the Moon is up at the time.
  • Orionids meteor shower21 OctoberPeak night. Halley’s Comet again, ~20/hour.
  • Leonids meteor shower17 NovemberPeak night. Fast and bright, ~15/hour.
  • Geminids meteor shower14 DecemberPeak night. The year’s best — up to ~120/hour, bright and slow.

Meteor showers are best on a moonless night away from town lights — use the moon panel above to judge. Eclipse and shower dates are worldwide; whether it’s above your horizon depends on your location and time.

Every time is shown in Athens’s own local clock, with daylight saving applied for the date. “—” means the event doesn’t occur (for example, some nights the moon doesn’t rise); “stays light” means the sky never reaches that stage (northern summer). ISS pass times use live orbital data and show only passes visible to the naked eye (bright enough, in a dark-enough sky). Planet visibility is judged during the genuinely-dark window, not by a daytime high point — so a planet only appears here when you could actually see it.