Menu

Sky Digest

Friday, 26 December 2025 | Default Location
Showing the sky from Greenwich, London. Log in to use your own location.
Excel

Tonight at a Glance

Waxing Crescent 40%
Dark window: 17:18 – 06:41 (13 h 22 m)

Planet Highlights

Jupiter mag -2.7 · 34° alt · Gemini Details
GRS transit tonight:
Europa Shadow transit begins
Europa Transit begins
Europa Shadow transit ends
Europa Transit ends
+2 more — Details
Saturn mag 0.9 · 19° alt · Aquarius Details
Rings: Edge-on (rings nearly invisible) (1.0° north face)

Comets

PANSTARRS mag 6.6 · 28° alt · Pegasus Details
bright 2.18 AU Perihelion: Apr 19 (in 19d)

For Beginners (naked eye)

Hyades
Open Cluster
mag 0.5

At 21:00 look high in the southeast

Taurus
M42
Great Orion Nebula Nebula
mag 4.0

At 21:00 look halfway up in the southeast

Orion
M31
Andromeda Galaxy Galaxy
mag 3.4

At 21:00 look high in the west

Andromeda

Binocular Targets

Mira
68 Cet Variable Star
mag 3.0

At 21:00 look halfway up in the south

Cet
M34
Spiral Cluster Open Cluster
mag 5.5

At 21:00 look near the zenith

Perseus
M81
Bode's Galaxy Galaxy
mag 6.9

At 21:00 look halfway up in the northeast

Ursa Major

Small Scopes (3–6 inch)

Castor
HIP 36850; Alpha Gem; 66 Gem Double Star
mag 2.0

At 21:00 look halfway up in the east

Gem
NGC 957
Open Cluster
mag 7.6

At 21:00 look near the zenith

Per
NGC 246
Planetary Nebula
mag 8.0

At 21:00 look low in the southwest

Cet
M77
Cetus A or Squid Galaxy Galaxy
mag 8.9

At 21:00 look halfway up in the south

Cetus
R Tri
Variable Star
mag 5.3

At 21:00 look near the zenith

Tri

Big Scopes (8–12 inch)

NGC 1496
Open Cluster
mag 10.0

At 21:00 look near the zenith

Per
M76
Little Dumbbell Nebula Planetary Nebula
mag 10.1

At 21:00 look near the zenith

Perseus
C5
IC 342 Galaxy
mag 9.2

At 21:00 look near the zenith

Camelopardalis
C23
NGC 891 Galaxy
mag 9.9

At 21:00 look near the zenith

Andromeda
M74
Phantom Galaxy Galaxy
mag 9.4

At 21:00 look high in the southwest

Pisces

The Week Ahead

Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu
🌓 40% 🌔 50% 🌔 61% 🌔 72% 🌔 82% 🌔 90% 🌔 96%

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

3I/ATLAS Flyby

Attention grabbing interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS made its not-so-close flyby of our fair planet on December 19 at a distance of 1.8 astronomical units. That's about 900 light-seconds. This deep exposure captures the comet from another star system as it gently swept across a faint background of stars in the constellation Leo about 4 days earlier. Though faint, colors emphasized in the image data show off the comet's yellowish dust tail and bluish ion tail along with a greenish tinged coma. And even as it is scrutinized by arrays of telescopes and spacecraft from planet Earth, 3I/ATLAS is headed out of the Solar System. It's presently moving outward along a hyperbolic trajectory at about 64 kilometers per second relative to the Sun, too fast to be bound by the Sun's gravity.

Image credit: Dan Bartlett — APOD is a service of NASA and Michigan Tech. U.

View on NASA APOD

Space News

Sendoff for Artemis II Crew

NASA's Artemis II crew - including astronauts Andre Douglas, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman, and Canadian astronauts Jenni Gibbons and Jeremy Hansen - has been officially sent off for their historic Moon mission.

NASA — 30 Mar 2026

NASA Selects Intuitive Machines to Deliver Artemis Science, Tech to Moon

NASA awarded Intuitive Machines $180.4 million to deliver seven science payloads to the lunar surface through the CLPS initiative, supporting the Artemis program.

NASA — 27 Mar 2026

NASA Names Scientists to Support Lunar South Pole Science

NASA selected 10 scientists to develop the lunar surface science plan for Artemis astronauts, including deploying instruments and collecting Moon rocks at the lunar south pole.

NASA — 27 Mar 2026

NASA Releases Artemis II Moon Mission Launch Countdown

NASA released the Artemis II launch countdown, targeting no earlier than April 1, 2026, for the crewed mission around the Moon with four astronauts.

NASA — 26 Mar 2026

Plan your session before dark

Use Tonight to find targets, then add them to a Plan so you have a checklist ready when you're outside.

Open Tonight

Sign in to get this digest by email and customize it for your location.