Sat 19 September · London
A dark-sky window opens.
Properly dark 21:00–04:48 · 7h 48m
waxing gibbous · 58% lit · 5h 50m of moon-free darkness
How we’d play it
A genuinely dark window — galaxies and nebulae are on the menu, and Saturn and Mars are well-placed for the eyepiece. The kind of night we plan a full session around.
Plan a night with us →Worth looking at
- SaturnBest 01:53Well-placed around the middle of the night (around 01:53) — 41° in the south.rises 19:39sets 08:09highest 01:53 (41°)
- MarsBest 04:48Well-placed in the east — 35° just before dawn (04:48), still rising as the sky brightens.rises 00:47sets 16:58highest 04:48 (35°)
- JupiterBest 04:48Low in the east, still climbing when the sky brightens at 04:48 — only 16°.rises 02:56sets 17:52highest 04:48 (16°)
Venus is below the horizon whenever the sky is dark.
Twilight stages & sun times +
- Sunset19:05
- Civil twilight ends19:39
- Nautical twilight ends20:18
- Fully dark21:00
- First light04:48
- Nautical twilight (dawn)05:30
- Civil twilight (dawn)06:09
- Sunrise06:43
All times BST (local). Moon-free windows: 22:58–04:48.
Sun, Moon & planet altitude +
Altitude across the night (BST), sunset to sunrise. A target is easy to observe when its curve is high during the shaded dark band. Tap “show planets” to overlay them.
Not tonight?
Darker nights suit galaxies and nebulae. The Moon thins out toward the end of the week.
Coming up
- Orionids meteor showerWed 21 October · Peak night. Halley’s Comet again, ~20/hour.in 5 weeks
- Leonids meteor showerTue 17 November · Peak night. Fast and bright, ~15/hour.in 8 weeks
- Geminids meteor showerMon 14 December · Peak night. The year’s best — up to ~120/hour, bright and slow.in 12 weeks
- Quadrantids meteor showerSun 3 January · Peak night. Sharp peak, up to ~40/hour — brief but rich.in 15 weeks
We bring the telescope, and we read the sky for you — so the night lands on the right hour.
Get in touch →