Field guide · Updated October 2026
Which planets are visible tonight?
Five planets can be seen with the naked eye. Below, each one's place in the sky is worked out for this moment: evening sky planets are up after sunset, morning sky planets before sunrise, and a planet close to the Sun is lost in its glare.
Open the 3D viewer for live positions →Coming up in the sky
The next eclipses, the best meteor showers and the planets at their brightest. Press Remind me and we email you the day before.
- Geminid meteor shower peak · 14 Dec 2026 · up to 150 an hour
- Quadrantid meteor shower peak · 4 Jan 2027 · up to 80 an hour
- Annular solar eclipse · 6 Feb 2027 · Chile, Argentina, South Atlantic, West Africa
- Jupiter at opposition · 11 Feb 2027 · 652.1 million km away
- Mars at opposition · 19 Feb 2027 · 101.4 million km away
- Total solar eclipse · 2 Aug 2027 · Spain, North Africa, Egypt
Quick rules of thumb
- Planets do not twinkle the way stars do — they shine with a steady light because they are nearby discs, not distant points.
- Planets stay near the ecliptic — the path the Sun traces across the sky. If a bright "star" is well off that path, it is a star.
- Planets move against the background stars night to night. Track one over a week and you will see it shift.
- Brightness ranges widely — Venus can be -4.9 (brilliant), Neptune is +7.8 (telescope-only).
Each planet, one by one
Evening or morning holds for anyone on Earth; the exact rising and setting times depend on where you are. For how far each planet is, see distances from Earth right now.
Visibility tags below: Trivial = naked eye, brightest objects after the Moon. Easy = naked eye on most nights. Borderline = naked eye under dark skies. Telescope required = invisible without optics.
Mercury Evening sky, 25° east of the Sun Hard
Mercury is always close to the Sun, never appearing more than ~28° from it. Look low on the western horizon just after sunset, or eastern horizon just before sunrise — and only during the few weeks when it reaches greatest elongation. Naked eye possible but binoculars help.
Right now Mercury is 163,532,048 km from Earth. Live distance and next close approach · About Mercury · Open Mercury in 3D
Venus Evening sky, 26° east of the Sun Trivial
The brightest natural object in the night sky after the Moon. Visible as the "evening star" in the west after sunset or "morning star" in the east before sunrise. So bright it casts shadows. You cannot mistake it for anything else once it is up.
Right now Venus is 47,548,139 km from Earth. Live distance and next close approach · About Venus · Open Venus in 3D
Mars Morning sky, 69° west of the Sun Easy at opposition
Visible as a steady, distinctly red-orange "star." Brightest near opposition (every ~26 months), when Earth passes between Mars and the Sun. Magnitude ranges from -2.9 (rivalling Jupiter) at close opposition to +1.6 when distant. Visible to the naked eye whenever above the horizon.
Right now Mars is 243,025,391 km from Earth. Live distance and next close approach · About Mars · Open Mars in 3D
Jupiter Morning sky, 53° west of the Sun Trivial
Second-brightest planet after Venus. A steady, bright cream-white point. Even small binoculars resolve the four Galilean moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto) as a line of dots either side. A small telescope shows the cloud bands and the Great Red Spot.
Right now Jupiter is 874,894,923 km from Earth. Live distance and next close approach · About Jupiter · Open Jupiter in 3D
Saturn Up all night, 176° from the Sun Easy
Visible as a steady yellow-cream "star." Naked-eye easy. The rings are the magic — even a 60mm telescope at 30× magnification clearly shows them. At larger magnification you can see Titan as a pinpoint moon.
Right now Saturn is 1,261,876,838 km from Earth. Live distance and next close approach · About Saturn · Open Saturn in 3D
Uranus Morning sky, 128° west of the Sun Borderline
At magnitude 5.7-5.9, Uranus sits at the very edge of naked-eye visibility under dark skies. Easier with binoculars: appears as a slightly green-blue point. A 100mm telescope shows it as a tiny disc.
Right now Uranus is 2,812,561,365 km from Earth. Live distance and next close approach · About Uranus · Open Uranus in 3D
Neptune Up all night, 169° from the Sun Telescope required
Magnitude 7.7-8.0 — too faint for naked eye. Binoculars under dark skies, or any telescope, will pick it out as a deep blue point. Distinguishable from a star only by its disc-like appearance at high magnification.
Right now Neptune is 4,322,689,680 km from Earth. Live distance and next close approach · About Neptune · Open Neptune in 3D
Use the 3D viewer for tonight's sky
Open the 3D viewer and the simulation runs at the current real-world date and time by default. Hit play, focus on Earth, and look outward to see exactly which planets are above the horizon for an observer on Earth's day or night side. Time-speed lets you scrub forward to see when each planet rises tonight.
Open the 3D viewer →Best apps to pair this with
For real-time, location-aware sky-tracking on a phone, free apps like Stellarium, Sky & Telescope, and Apple's built-in Stargaze (Vision Pro) all work well. The viewer here is for understanding orbital geometry and what each body looks like up close — the apps tell you exactly where to point your binoculars.