How to Use Planets Visible Tonight
See which planets are up now, when each one is best placed in the next day and a half, and which way to face from your own location.
What this tool answers
Which planets can I see from here, and when and where should I look? The tool covers the seven planets from Mercury to Neptune. For each one it finds the best viewing window in the next 36 hours, the moment the planet stands highest in that window, and its next rise and set. Times follow your pin's time zone, not your device's. For a pin in Guyana that is America/Guyana, labelled GMT-4 (UTC-4, no daylight saving).
What you see on the screen
- Location bar: your pin's place name and coordinates, with My location and Change buttons.
- Side panel: an Observer box, a How to use box with a status line such as "2 easy now · 1 good+ quality", a Refresh now button and links to related pages.
- Sky sim: a header with "Best · (planet)", a countdown, and chips for direction and altitude, window length, rise and set. Below are a window bar marking the best moment, a Grid switch (Alt/Az or Equatorial) and a horizon picture facing the planet.
- When to look: the ranked list. A Best target · score N box with a Show in sky sim button sits on top, then an Up now section and a Coming up section of planet cards.
Each card shows a rank, the name, a status chip, Score N and, on the leader, Top pick. Below come Best look-up or Best time to see with a countdown, the window times and length, Rise, Set, the current altitude and direction ("Now 34° ESE") and the magnitude.
Step by step
- Open Planets Visible Tonight.
- Check the place name. Tap My location for GPS, or Change to pick a Guyana Presets town or type Manual Coordinates.
- Wait for "Calculating viewing windows" to finish, then read the status line in How to use.
- Tap Show in sky sim in the Best target box.
- Tap any other planet card to move the sky sim to that planet's best moment.
- Note the direction and altitude chip, for example "SE · 42°". Face that way and look up that far. A fist at arm's length covers about 10°.
- Tap Refresh now before you head out. The page does not update on its own.
The sky sim chip reads "SE · 42°". About how many fists at arm's length above the horizon should you look?
- 1
- 2
- 4 (the right answer)
- 9
A fist at arm's length covers about 10°, so 42° is about four fists up, facing south-east.
Planets Visible Tonight on a February 2027 evening in Georgetown: the best target, the sky sim and the ranked cards.
How to read the results
| Status chip | What it means | |---|---| | Visible now | More than 10° up, with the Sun more than 6° below the horizon | | Up now with a daytime or twilight note | More than 10° up, but the Sun is less than 6° below the horizon, so the sky is too bright | | In window | Inside its viewing window right now | | Coming up | Low now, and its window starts later. A daytime or twilight note means that window is in a bright sky | | Below horizon | Under the horizon now | | Not visible | Low now, with no window ahead |
The Up now section holds every planet above the horizon, even a low one that is not yet visible. The Coming up section holds the rest.
The tool's ranked planet cards for Georgetown or Lethem, now or any hour of the next day and a half, beside the sky they describe.
At 18:05 Saturn's card sits under Up now, 25° up, with a twilight note. Can you see it yet?
- Yes: it is up, so it is visible
- Not well yet: the Sun is less than 6° down and the sky is too bright (the right answer)
- No: it is below the horizon
- Only through a telescope
Up now holds every planet above the horizon. Visible now also needs the Sun more than 6° below the horizon, so read the status chip.
The viewing window is the stretch in the next 36 hours when the Sun is more than 6° below the horizon and the planet is at least 10° up. If a planet never gets that, the tool falls back to its time above 10° in a bright sky and adds Too bright to see. Window edges are the exact moments the Sun passes 6° below the horizon and the planet passes 10° up, so even a window of a few minutes is found.
A planet that is visible now also gets a quality chip: excellent at 60° up and magnitude 2 or brighter, good at 45° and 3, fair at 30° and 4, and poor otherwise.
Score runs from 0 to 100. Brightness gives up to 45 points, altitude up to 25, being visible now or soon up to 30, and the quality chip up to 10.
Rise and Set are the next rise and the next set after you loaded the page, with the usual allowance for the air bending light near the horizon. When a planet is already up, Set comes before Rise. A dash means no rise or set in the next 24 hours.
Magnitude is a brightness scale: more negative is brighter. Uranus stays near magnitude 5.6 to 5.8, at the edge of what the eye can see under a very dark sky. Neptune stays near 7.8 to 8.0 and always needs binoculars or a telescope.
Alt/Az draws altitude and compass lines, like the sky you see. Equatorial draws the RA and Dec grid used on star charts and mounts.
Using it from Guyana
- In Georgetown and Lethem the Sun is more than 6° below the horizon from 21 to 23 minutes after sunset until 21 to 23 minutes before sunrise. A planet more than 10° up turns Visible now about 20 minutes after sunset.
- Mercury stays close to the Sun. From Georgetown in 2026 and 2027 it meets the tool's dark-sky rule on only about a third of days, for at most about 35 minutes, so on most days it shows Too bright to see or no window at all.
- Pick your town under Guyana Presets so directions and times match your sky.
Every evening and morning of the year: how long Mercury meets the tool's rule from Georgetown or Lethem.
What it does not do
- It does not know the weather. Check Stargazing Weather or the Tonight Observing Score.
- It always starts from now. There is no date or time picker.
- It covers planets only: no Moon, dwarf planets or comets.
- It treats anything under 10° as not visible, even over a flat sea horizon.
Common mistakes
- Waiting outside for a planet marked Too bright to see.
- Reading Up now as visible. Check the status chip.
- Leaving the page open for hours. Tap Refresh now.
- Looking for Neptune without optics.
- Sweeping binoculars toward the Sun while hunting Mercury or Venus. Start after sunset and stop before sunrise.