The Journal · Category
What to look for in the sky tonight and this month, calculated for where you are: visible planets, the phase of the Moon, the best observing window and what is worth a look before dawn.
Featured · Tonight
Venus peaks at magnitude -4.8, yet its lead over the Sun melts from 61 minutes to 15 in a single month. In between, the Moon will hide it in broad daylight on the 14th, the equinox falls on the 23rd, and the full Moon of the 26th will rise barely later each evening. The month's programme, computed for Western Europe.
September 3, 2026
Tonight
Between 21:10 and 21:55, low in the west-south-west, a crescent lit to 11.9 % passes within seven degrees of Venus. It is also the best evening this month to see the dark limb of the Moon lit by the Earth. Here are the two quarter-hours that matter, and the arithmetic of what is doing the lighting.
August 15, 2026