How to use Planets Visible Tonight

Tool walkthrough · 0:44 · silent, with on-screen words

A walkthrough of Planets Visible Tonight, recorded from the real tool for a February 2027 evening in Georgetown: the best target, the sky sim and the ranked planet cards.

The video file (MP4, 1932 kB)

Shows Planets Visible Tonight for Georgetown (6.80° N, 58.16° W) at 20:00 GYT on Thu 4 Feb 2027.

Chapters

  1. 0:04 Check the place
  2. 0:10 The best target
  3. 0:16 Find it in the sky sim
  4. 0:24 Read the planet cards
  5. 0:31 Pick another planet

From the lesson How to Use Planets Visible Tonight.

What the video shows, in words

A silent walkthrough recorded from the real Planets Visible Tonight tool on this site, with the cursor and on-screen words showing each step.

For Georgetown at 20:00 GYT on Thursday 4 February 2027 the status line reads "4 easy now · 0 good+ quality". The best target is Jupiter (score 74); the sky sim puts its best moment N · 82°. Up now: Jupiter, score 74, 22° ENE, magnitude -2.6; Saturn, score 51, 24° W, magnitude 0.7; Uranus, score 51, 69° NW, magnitude 5.7; Mars, score 39, 9° ENE, magnitude -1.0; Neptune, score 36, 16° W, magnitude 7.9. Coming up (below the horizon now): Venus, rising at 03:08 before dawn and Mercury, rising in daylight and back at tomorrow’s dusk.

  1. 0:00 Planets Visible Tonight ranks the planets for your pin and shows where to face, and how high to look.
  2. 0:04 The pin is Georgetown and the clock reads 20:00 on 4 February 2027. The status line sums up the sky: 4 easy now · 0 good+ quality.
  3. 0:10 The best target right now is Jupiter, with a visibility score of 74.
  4. 0:16 The sky sim jumps to Jupiter's best moment, 00:34 GYT, when it stands 82° up in the N. A fist at arm's length is about 10°.
  5. 0:24 Each card gives a score, where the planet is now and how bright it is: Jupiter is 22° ENE at magnitude -2.6.
  6. 0:31 Tap Saturn and the sky sim moves to it: 24° W now, score 51. Up now: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Mars and Neptune.
  7. 0:39 Press Refresh now before you head out: the page does not update by itself.

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