Set Right Ascension/Declination

This looks at a given point on the star map, independent of the current time or the observer's location on Earth.

Right Ascension
Declination
Set Latitude/Longitude

This specifies where you are on Earth.

Set Azimuth/Altitude

This sets the direction you face, which you can also set by dragging the map.

Set Date/Time
Set playback speed
Preferences
About Celestial Fishbowl

You are at the centre of an imaginary sphere. The stars and planets are projected onto the inside of it for you to view. You can move around by dragging the map. Zoom in and out using the mouse scroll wheel or pinch-zoom on a touch screen.

Celestial Fishbowl is written by Graeme Cole and was first published in 2026.

Acknowledgements

Star information comes from the HYG database version 4.2 compiled by David Nash, which is released under the CC BY-SA licence. This map only contains stars which have a proper name recognised by the International Astronomical Union, a Bayer or Flamsteed designation, or an entry in the Yale Bright Star Catalogue. This is over 9,000 stars, mostly magnitude 6.5 and brighter. The resulting reduced star list can be found in the JavaScript file starlist.js and is accordingly released under CC BY-SA.

Planet positions are calculated from the tables and formulae given in the JPL Approximate Positions of the Planets page. Constellation boundaries and line art come from the boundary data and diagrams published by the IAU, except for the line art for Mensa and Microscopium, which doesn't exist in the IAU diagrams so I made it up.

The position and phase of the moon, rise/set times of objects, planet phases and magnitudes, and much more of what you see on this page, are calculated from the procedures and tables given in the book Astronomical Algorithms by Jean Meeus.

Notes on accuracy:

  • When calculating the position of a star at a given point in time, its proper motion and the precession of the equinoxes are taken into account, but other effects such as nutation of the Earth's rotation, aberration, and annual parallax are disregarded.
  • The effect of atmospheric refraction on the apparent altitude of an object is ignored. This is why objects near the horizon are shown on the map about half a degree lower than they appear to be in real life.
  • Planet positions for before the year 1800 or after 2050 will be inaccurate.
  • Apparent magnitudes of the planets are approximate and do not take into account the rings of Saturn.
Text search

Search for a planet, Messier object, the Sun, the Moon, or any star by name, Bayer designation, Flamsteed number or HR number.