What planets are visible tonight?

Five planets are easy to see with the naked eye: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. On October 15, 2026, at 40° north, Saturn (east, 10°) and Mercury (southwest, 3°) are above the horizon half an hour after sunset, and Mars (southeast, 61°) and Jupiter (southeast, 50°) half an hour before sunrise. From November 7 to December 18, 2026, four planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter) are above the horizon together half an hour before sunrise; the best morning is November 20, 2026, when even the lowest, Mercury, is 12° up. Below: the planets month by month, the times several line up, and a calculator for any place and date.

Planets in your sky

Enter your latitude and longitude (west is negative), the time zone your clock is on that day, and a date. For each planet you get its direction and height half an hour after sunset and half an hour before sunrise, and when it rises and sets.

The date starts at today; without JavaScript, the example above is New York on November 20, 2026. Height is above a flat horizon: hills, trees and buildings hide the lowest planets.

Month by month (40° north)

Each row is the 15th of the month at 40° north on the meridian of the Eastern time zone (75° west), half an hour after sunset and half an hour before sunrise, highest planet first.

When four planets line up

From November 7 to December 18, 2026, four planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter) are above the horizon together half an hour before sunrise; the best morning is November 20, 2026, when even the lowest, Mercury, is 12° up. The other four-planet windows, in February, October and December 2027, last at most a few days, and the lowest planet is never more than 2° up, too low to see over most horizons. The planets line up because they all move close to the plane of the Earth's orbit, so they trace one line across the sky.

Two planets close together

On November 16, 2026, at 1:24 a.m. Eastern time, Jupiter and Mars pass 1.2° apart; half an hour before sunrise both are at least 64° up at 40° north. Dates and times are Eastern time; the distance is how far apart the two look in the sky.

Best times for each planet

At opposition a planet is opposite the Sun and up most of the night; Mercury is easiest to catch at its greatest elongation, its farthest from the Sun. Dates are Eastern time.

Where Angel Step fits

Angel Step reads only your step count from Apple Health and shows it as one number on a living sky. It does not track planets; that is this page's job. An evening walk is a good time to look west after sunset.

Sources

• National Astronomical Observatory of Japan — dates of planetary conjunctions, oppositions and greatest elongations. NAOJ
• JPL Horizons — planet positions, used to check this page's directions and heights. JPL
• VSOP87 planetary theory (Bretagnon and Francou), Paris Observatory IMCCE — planet positions. IMCCE
• US Naval Observatory — sunrise and sunset rule. USNO
• 15 U.S.C. § 260a — daylight saving time, used for the clock times. Cornell LII

Updated 13 October 2026