The Winter Triangle: where and when to see it

The Winter Triangle is Sirius in Canis Major (magnitude −1.5), Procyon in Canis Minor (0.4) and Betelgeuse in Orion (0.5). In October 2026 at 40° north it is a pre-dawn sight: all three stars are up in a dark sky from about 3:15 a.m. to 6:10 a.m., in the south. From November 19 it is up before midnight, and the last evening is around April 19, 2027, at 8:45 p.m. in the southwest. On January 15, 2027 it is up from 8:10 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. and highest at 11:05 p.m., in the south, 49° up. Below: when all three stars are up in a dark sky, month by month, and a calculator for any place, date and hour.

Is the Winter Triangle up tonight?

Enter your latitude and longitude (west is negative), the time zone your clock is on that day, a date and an hour of that night. “Up” here means all three stars are at least 20° above the horizon while the sky is dark (the Sun more than 12° below the horizon).

The date starts at today; without JavaScript, the example above is New York on January 15, 2027 at 9:00 p.m.. Directions are where to face; “up” is the height above the horizon.

Month by month (40° north)

Each row is the night of the 15th, at 40° north on the meridian of the Eastern time zone (75° west), by Eastern clock time with daylight saving time from March to early November. “Up” is when all three stars are at least 20° high in a dark sky; “highest” is when the middle of the triangle stands highest in that window. Times are to 5 minutes.

When is the Winter Triangle visible?

At 40° north the Winter Triangle first appears before dawn around September 9, 2026, is up before midnight from November 19 and is last seen in the evening around April 19, 2027; it returns before dawn around September 9, 2027. From May to August it is not up in a dark sky at all. Farther north the season is shorter. In the table, “dawn from” is the first morning it is up before dawn, “evening from” the first night it is up before midnight.

The table is for the meridian of a time zone (75° west for Eastern time). For each degree you are west of it, the same sky comes about 4 minutes later by the clock.

Where to look through the night

The triangle rises in the east, crosses the south and sets in the west. On January 15, 2027 at 40° north, look for the middle of the triangle southeast, 40° up, at 9:00 p.m.; south, 49° up, at 11:00 p.m.; and southwest, 41° up, at 1:00 a.m. It is highest at about 11:05 p.m., in the south (49° up). At 40° north it never passes overhead.

The three stars

Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky; Procyon and Betelgeuse are close to each other in brightness. The Winter Triangle is an asterism, a pattern of bright stars, not a constellation of its own.

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 stars; that is this page's job. A cold, clear evening is a good time for a walk: look south.

Sources

• Amateur Astronomers Association of New York — “The Winter Triangle”, the stars of the asterism. AAA
• US Naval Observatory — celestial navigation data, used to check this page's star positions. USNO
• Hipparcos new reduction (van Leeuwen 2007) and the Yale Bright Star Catalog — star positions and brightness. VizieR
• IAU Working Group on Star Names — the names of the stars. IAU
• National Astronomical Observatory of Japan — the names and abbreviations of the 88 constellations. NAOJ
• 15 U.S.C. § 260a — daylight saving time, used for the clock times. Cornell LII

Updated 13 October 2026