Observing plan · Beijing · 17:19 → 06:37
What is actually up tonight.
A planet below the horizon will not appear no matter how clear the sky is. This is the night laid out on one axis: when the sky gets properly dark, which targets are above the horizon and when each one is highest — computed from your coordinates, not guessed.
computed for Beijing (39.90, 116.41) · 2026-10-29
The sky is properly dark from 18:55 to 05:07; ISS crosses at 04:04, peaking 13° to the north. Mars is highest at 60° to the south-east, around 05:37. The Moon is 82% lit, so faint targets will wash out until it sets.
At 82% illuminated the Moon is the brightest thing in the sky tonight and will wash out fainter targets while it is up. Look for the planets anyway — they cut through moonlight better than almost anything else.
- Phase
- Waning gibbous
- Angle
- 229.8°
- Distance
- 365,101 km
- Next full
- 2026-11-24
- Next new
- 2026-11-09
How to read thisand why the numbers move every night
Altitude beats brightness. A planet 5° above the horizon is behind several thicknesses of atmosphere and will look like a wobbling smear. Above 30° it becomes sharp. The peak marker on each bar is the moment it is highest and therefore steadiest.
The shaded band is when the sky is actually dark. Civil twilight (Sun at −6°) is still bright enough to read a book by. Nautical twilight (−12°) shows the horizon at sea. Only after astronomical twilight (−18°) is the sky dark enough for faint objects.
The Moon sets the rules. It is the second-brightest object in the sky and, when it is up, it raises the background brightness for everything else in the same part of the sky.
ISS passes for your city
Every city page carries the next five days of visible station passes at that location.
Use your own position
The plan above is for Beijing. Tap “use my position” to recompute it for where you are.