Current Sky - SkyMarvels.com

THE CURRENT SKY

Sky Maps Credit: Las Cumbres Observatory: Virtual Sky (To update, reload page.)

"PLANECHART" Projection

The sky maps above and below provide excellent "overall snapshots" of the current circumstances of nearly the entire sky. In the sky map above only extremely small portions around the Celestial North and South Poles are omitted, as these become highly distorted in a "Planechart" projection. The "Mollweide projection" below, though a bit less detailed, includes the extreme polar regions, giving access to essentially the entire sky. It also gives a somewhat better sense of the inverted bowl of the heavens, as well as the shapes of the more polar constellations. Day after day on both maps you may follow the Sun in its eastward trek through the background stars of the Celes- tial Sphere. Or track the progress of the Moon and the planets near the Ecliptic, the plane of Earth's orbit.

Current Moon Current Planets Brightest Stars Messier Objects IAU Constellation page

In both sky maps east and west are reversed compared to their orientations on a ground map, due of course to the fact that you are looking up into the sky, not down onto the ground. The four cardinal directions are given on both projections. Note that the two sky maps scroll using different methods. While the "Planechart" projection above is scrolled with its slider bar, the "Mollweide" projection below is scrolled—though a bit more slowly—by dragging the map itself left and right with the mouse. For more perspectives on the circumstances you discover above and be- low, be sure to also check out our Sky Viewing, Solar System, Major Sky Objects Elongations, and Current Ecliptic pages, as well as the Sun's, Moon's and planets' Locations in the Constellations pages.

"MOLLWEIDE" Projection (drag map left & right)

Advanced sky enthusiasts may also wish to check out the D3-Celestial Starmap, an awesome site providing sky maps that can be customized with much greater detail, as well as an impressive number of different projections.

Note: at times it confuses novice astronomy enthusiasts to find the lines joining a constellation's stars drawn differ- ently in different presentations. But the fact is there is no "official way" to "connect the dots" (so to speak) of the constellations' most prominent stars. As various sources have their own preferences in how they draw them, don't be concerned when you see the asterisms—the popular shapes within constellations—presented in quite an as- sortment of ways. Generally you'll have no trouble recognizing them.

Home Intro News Gallery Sky-Gifts Bonuses Tips
Learning Ctr Help Links Credits Legal Contact Us

SkyMarvels, Sky Marvels, SkyMarvels.com, Current Earth Sunrise and Sunset Views!, Current Aurora Forecast: Northern Hemisphere, Aurora Borealis, Northern Lights, Aurora Australis, Southern Lights, celestiaforall, CELESTIA, astronomy, space, simulations, animations, downloadable astronomy posters, stars, planets, Inner Planets, Outer Planets, Inferior Planets, Superior Planets, moons, asteroids, comets, Oort Cloud, galaxy, galaxies, Milky Way, Andromeda, globular clusters, binaries, quasars, black holes, supermassive black holes, telescope, telescopes, planetarium, software, freestuff, satellites, add-ons, addons, scripts, eclipses, Solar Eclipses, Lunar Eclipses, Solar Eclipse Finder, Lunar Eclipse Finder, mutual eclipses, transits, occultations, Solar System, CELES-TOOLS, celeSTARrium, CELX, CELX programming, Freebies, multiple views, atronomical unit, light year, parsec, meteors, meteor showers, Perseids, Geminids, Leonids, barycenter, time, Time Zones, tides, alignments, conjunctions, oppositions, seasons, apogees, perigees, aphelion, perihelion, Earth, Luna, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Galilean Moons, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Saturn, Titan, rings, Uranus, Neptune, Triton, E-MSpectrum, electromagnetic spectrum, astronaut, equinoxes, solstices, precession, rotation, spin, inclination, tilt, Ecliptic, orbits, ellipse, parabola, hyperbola