Sky Tonight

Tonight for 3.14°N, 101.69°E: moon phase, illumination and the twilight windows that decide when the sky is actually dark enough to observe. The moon figures are computed locally (exact), the twilight times come from the U.S. Naval Observatory’s public sunrise–sunset service.

Day length today: 12 h. Times are UTC; your browser clock may differ.

Astronomical darkness — the number that matters

Civil twilight ends when the Sun is 6° below the horizon (you can see Venus and Jupiter), nautical at 12° (the horizon and bright stars appear), and astronomical twilight at 18° — only after that does the sky reach true dark, letting faint galaxies, the zodiacal light and the Milky Way show themselves. Near the equator this happens fast (Malaysia gets about 90 minutes of full night all year round); at high latitudes summer can never reach it at all.

What to observe tonight

Under a Waning Gibbous sky, try: the Moon’s terminator line (best crater detail), Jupiter and Saturn when above the horizon after midnight, and the Milky Way core season from southern latitudes. Check the space-weather page for aurora chances and the ISS page for pass timings.

The year’s fixed sky events

Hand-picked dates worth planning around — meteor-shower maxima and eclipses. Peak nights shift by roughly a day or two between years, and shower rates below are best-case figures under fully dark skies; moonlight and light pollution reduce what you actually see. Cross-check the Moon illumination card above before committing to a trip.

Eclipse path and timings: NASA. Meteor shower parameters: International Meteor Organization summaries.