ASTRAPIXELS

Sky events

14 events in the next 180 days, computed from astronomy-engine rather than copied from a list. Conjunctions are found by sampling every planet pair daily and refining each minimum, oppositions by solving for relative longitude, eclipses from the engine's eclipse search. Dates and times are UTC.

Generated 2 August 2026, 00:00 UTC, refreshed through the day. The Moon is left out of the conjunction search on purpose: it passes within a few degrees of some planet nearly every week, and including that would bury everything else on this page.

Next seven days

2 August 2026 to 8 August 2026.

A quiet week: no conjunctions, oppositions, showers or eclipses. The planets are still moving, so pick a body and see where it is.

August 2026

  • total solar eclipse

    eclipse

    The Moon crosses in front of the Sun, greatest at 17:45 UTC. Only visible along a narrow track.

    A lunar eclipse is visible from the whole night side of Earth. A solar eclipse is only total along a narrow track, so check whether yours crosses it.

  • Perseids peak

    meteor shower

    Up to 100 meteors an hour radiating from Perseus, debris from comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. The reliable one: warm nights, a high radiant and a broad peak.

    Best after midnight, away from town lights, with no optics at all. Let your eyes adapt for twenty minutes first.

  • Mercury and Jupiter in conjunction

    conjunction

    Closest at 10:43 UTC, separated by 0.55 degrees, about 1 full-Moon widths apart.

    Look shortly after sunset or before sunrise, depending on which side of the Sun the pair is on. Binoculars help, a telescope is not needed.

  • partial lunar eclipse

    eclipse

    The Moon passes through Earth's shadow, greatest at 04:12 UTC. Visible from the whole night side of Earth.

    A lunar eclipse is visible from the whole night side of Earth. A solar eclipse is only total along a narrow track, so check whether yours crosses it.

September 2026

  • Neptune at opposition

    opposition

    Neptune is opposite the Sun from Earth, so it rises at sunset, sits highest at midnight and is at its brightest and closest for the year.

    Up all night and at its brightest for the year. The best night of the year to point a telescope at it.

October 2026

  • Saturn at opposition

    opposition

    Saturn is opposite the Sun from Earth, so it rises at sunset, sits highest at midnight and is at its brightest and closest for the year.

    Up all night and at its brightest for the year. The best night of the year to point a telescope at it.

  • Draconids peak

    meteor shower

    Up to 10 meteors an hour radiating from Draco, debris from comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner. Usually sparse, but has produced storms of thousands per hour in 1933, 1946 and 2011.

    Best after midnight, away from town lights, with no optics at all. Let your eyes adapt for twenty minutes first.

  • Orionids peak

    meteor shower

    Up to 20 meteors an hour radiating from Orion, debris from comet 1P/Halley. The other half of Halley's stream, crossed on the outbound side.

    Best after midnight, away from town lights, with no optics at all. Let your eyes adapt for twenty minutes first.

November 2026

  • Mars and Jupiter in conjunction

    conjunction

    Closest at 02:03 UTC, separated by 1.19 degrees, about 2 full-Moon widths apart.

    Look shortly after sunset or before sunrise, depending on which side of the Sun the pair is on. Binoculars help, a telescope is not needed.

  • Leonids peak

    meteor shower

    Up to 15 meteors an hour radiating from Leo, debris from comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. Storms roughly every 33 years when the parent comet returns. 1833 and 1966 were the great ones.

    Best after midnight, away from town lights, with no optics at all. Let your eyes adapt for twenty minutes first.

  • Uranus at opposition

    opposition

    Uranus is opposite the Sun from Earth, so it rises at sunset, sits highest at midnight and is at its brightest and closest for the year.

    Up all night and at its brightest for the year. The best night of the year to point a telescope at it.

December 2026

  • Geminids peak

    meteor shower

    Up to 150 meteors an hour radiating from Gemini, debris from asteroid 3200 Phaethon. The strongest shower of the year, and the only major one fed by an asteroid rather than a comet.

    Best after midnight, away from town lights, with no optics at all. Let your eyes adapt for twenty minutes first.

January 2027

  • Quadrantids peak

    meteor shower

    Up to 110 meteors an hour radiating from Bootes, debris from asteroid 2003 EH1. A sharp peak only a few hours wide, so the date matters more than for any other shower.

    Best after midnight, away from town lights, with no optics at all. Let your eyes adapt for twenty minutes first.

  • Earth at perihelion

    perihelion

    Earth reaches its closest point to the Sun, 0.98333 AU, about 5 million km nearer than it will be in July.

    Nothing to see, and worth knowing anyway: Earth's orbit is slightly elliptical, and this is the closest point.

What counts as an event here

  • Conjunction:two planets within three degrees of each other as seen from Earth, which is about six full-Moon widths and the point at which a pair reads as “those two are next to each other” to somebody who was not looking for it.
  • Opposition: a superior planet opposite the Sun, so it rises at sunset and is at its closest and brightest for the year.
  • Meteor shower: the eight annual majors, with their zenithal hourly rates and the comet or asteroid the debris came from.
  • Eclipse: every lunar and global solar eclipse in the window.
  • Perihelion:Earth’s closest approach to the Sun.

Times are the instant of the event in UTC, not local visibility. Whether you can see it depends on your latitude, the horizon and the weather, which astrapixels.com does not know.