A living map of the sky, built by Yogesh
Watch the planets circle the Sun, track tonight's moon and darkness window, and follow the ISS as it crosses overhead — one corner of the COSMOS ecosystem.
Mission control
Live data, refreshed automatically. Location stays in your browser — COSMOS never stores it.
The stretch tonight when the sun sits far enough below the horizon that its glow no longer washes out faint objects.
A bright moon raises the sky background and hides faint deep-sky objects.
Cloud cover and wind at your coordinates, read as a rough stargazing forecast.
The brightest naked-eye satellite in orbit — this is its current ground position.
NASA's daily deep-sky or planetary image, for when your own sky is clouded out.
Open full entry ↗ NASA Astronomy Picture of the DayObservation targets
Apparent magnitude and instrument notes are typical values — actual visibility depends on the date.
mag −1.9 to 5.7
Naked eye, low on the horizon near dusk or dawn
mag −4.6
Naked eye — the brightest planet in the sky
Your observing platform
Everything above starts from here
mag −2.9 to 1.8
Naked eye, distinctly reddish; best near opposition
mag −2.9 to −1.6
Naked eye; binoculars resolve the four Galilean moons
mag 0.5 average
Naked eye; a small telescope splits the rings
mag 5.7
Barely naked eye under dark skies; binoculars help
mag 7.8
Telescope required — too faint for the naked eye
Select a world for its full observation notes.
Constellation of the month
Visible worldwide, and one of the easiest patterns to learn — three stars in a row form the belt.
Betelgeuse, the reddish shoulder star, is a red supergiant nearing the end of its life — it could go supernova anytime in the next hundred thousand years.
Rigel, the blue-white foot, burns far hotter and is one of the brightest stars in the night sky.
The three belt stars — Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka — sit almost in a perfect line and are the fastest way to find Orion from anywhere in the sky.
The COSMOS ecosystem
This live sky map is one piece of COSMOS — a running set of sites, apps, and experiments connecting astronomy, code, and curiosity.
A written exploration linking programming and the universe.
↗ WebsiteAn earlier generation of the COSMOS web ecosystem.
↗ ApplicationA mission-control style app inside the COSMOS ecosystem.
↗ PortfolioPersonal development portfolio and digital identity.
↗Mission log
Several connected projects, one running thread.
Real twilight, moon phase, and satellite tracking, tied to your own coordinates.
The hero orbit visual and constellation map, added to make the site feel like the sky it describes.
Get in touch
For the ecosystem, the live sky map, or just to compare notes on last night's sky.
Send a message