Celestial Fruit Bowl

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

h m s

Declination

° ′ ″

Set Latitude/Longitude

This specifies where you are on Earth.

Latitude (positive is north, negative is south)

Longitude (positive is east, negative is west)

Set Azimuth/Altitude

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

Azimuth (0° to 360°; 0° is north, 180° is south)

Altitude (-90° to 90°; negative is below horizon, positive is above)

FOV (1° to 180°)

Set Date/Time

Date and time according to your browser's local time zone

What to display

About the Celestial Fruit Bowl

This is a successor to the old Star Viewer (or "Watson, Someone Has Stolen Our Tent") from 2010. You are at the centre of an imaginary sphere. The stars and planets are projected onto the inside of it for you to view.

Star information comes from the HYG database version 4.2, which is released under the CC BY-SA licence. Note that although the HYG database lists over 110,000 stars, this map only shows those with a Bayer designation, a Flamsteed number, or an official name recognised by the International Astronomical Union. This is around 3,500 stars.

Planet positions are calculated from the tables and formulae given in the JPL Approximate Positions of the Planets page. Constellation boundaries are taken from the boundary data published by the International Astronomical Union.

Many useful pieces of information, including the position and phase of the moon, 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.