Sun and twilight
- Sunset
- Civil twilight ends
- Nautical twilight ends
- Astronomical darkness
- –
- Sunrise
Tonight at a glance
The Moon
100%
Waning Gibbous
- Moonrise
- Moonset
- (+1)
- Moon-free darkness
- none
Times between local noon today and noon tomorrow; (+1) means after midnight.
Dark-sky tip
A bright Moon tonight. Its light hides the Milky Way and fainter meteors. Use it instead: binoculars on the line between light and dark show craters in sharp relief.
Find real darkness. Even a short drive away from street lighting makes a big difference: the Milky Way needs a sky where you cannot read by the glow on the horizon. Look for a site with an open view low down in the direction you are interested in.
Tonight hour by hour
Day Civil twilight Nautical Astronomical Full dark · bars show when each body is above the horizon
Planets tonight
Mercury
Evening: from low in the west-southwest, sets around in the west-southwest.
Mars
Morning: rises around in the east-northeast, best near , 26° up in the northeast.
Jupiter
Morning: rises around in the east-northeast, best near , 24° up in the northeast.
Saturn
Evening: from low in the east-northeast, sets around in the west.
Uranus binoculars
Morning: rises around in the northeast, best near , 32° up in the north.
Neptune binoculars
Evening: from low in the northeast until .
"Visible" means at least 5° above the horizon (15° for Uranus and Neptune) while the Sun is more than 6° below it. Directions: N, NE, E… are compass points along the horizon.
The Norse sky over Auckland tonight
It is mánadagr ᛘᛅᚾᛅᛏᛅᚴᚱ, the Moon's day. In the old Icelandic calendar it is day 3 of Gormánuður ᚴᚢᚱᛘᛅᚾᚢᚦᚱ, in week 1 of winter (how the old calendar works).
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Sól drives her horses down at with the wolf Sköll at her heels; Night's horse Hrímfaxi has the sky to himself from , when twilight ends. She is back at .
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Máni, who in Snorri's words decides the Moon's waxing and waning, has made it waning gibbous, 100% lit. It rises at ; it sets at . The wolf Hati runs ahead of it.
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Óðinn, says Snorri, threw the giant Þjazi's eyes into the sky as two stars; no source says which. Since Jacob Grimm (1835) writers have suggested Castor and Pollux, the bright twins of Gemini. Castor and Pollux are clear of the northeast horizon from about , 21° up in the north-northeast as dawn comes.
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Lokabrenna, 'Loki's burning', is an Icelandic name for Sirius, the brightest star of the night, written down by scholars around 1800; no medieval text uses it. Sirius is clear of the east-southeast horizon from about , 70° up in the north as dawn comes.
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Icelanders called the three stars of Orion's belt Fjósakonur, 'the cowshed women'; in Sweden they were Friggerock, 'Frigg's distaff'. The belt is clear of the east horizon from about , highest around (54° N).
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Sjaustirni, 'the seven-star', is the Old Norse name for the Pleiades; medieval Icelanders told the time on winter nights by where 'the Star' stood. The Pleiades are clear of the northeast horizon from about , highest around (29° N).
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Þórr threw Aurvandil's frozen toe into the sky as a star; which star is unknown. Rigel, at Orion's foot, was the guess of Cleasby and Vigfusson's dictionary (1874); others say the morning star. Rigel is clear of the east horizon from about , highest around (61° N).
- Not up tonight
Karlsvagn (the Big Dipper): never rises from Auckland, Leiðarstjarna (Polaris): never rises from Auckland; the Milky Way, Vetrarbraut, is washed out by the Moon.
Grades: Medieval source the story or name is in a medieval Old Norse text; Later folk tradition recorded in later Icelandic or Scandinavian tradition; Modern guess a modern guess. Times are for Auckland; "up" means at least 10° above the horizon in a sky dark enough to see it. On the chart above, the Norse names are drawn in bronze. All Norse sky lore.
Visible ISS passes this week
| Date | Appears | Highest | Disappears | Visible for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon 26 Oct | SW | 45° SE | E | 4.9 min |
| Mon 26 Oct | W | 11° W | W | 0.2 min |
| Tue 27 Oct | WSW | 28° NW | NW | 3.0 min |
| Wed 28 Oct | WSW | 53° NW | NNE | 5.4 min |
| Fri 30 Oct | W | 16° NW | N | 4.4 min |
The International Space Station looks like a bright, steady star moving across the sky in a few minutes. Passes are computed from the latest orbital elements (epoch 2026-10-25); the station's orbit is adjusted from time to time, so a pass can shift by a minute or more. It may also fade suddenly when it enters Earth's shadow.
The next 7 nights
| Night of | Sunset | Dark | Moon | Moonrise / set | Moon-free dark | Planets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tue 27 Oct | – | 98% | ↑ ↓ | — | Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn | |
| Wed 28 Oct | – | 93% | ↑ ↓ | 1 h 10 min | Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn | |
| Thu 29 Oct | – | 85% | ↑ ↓ | 2 h 15 min | Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn | |
| Fri 30 Oct | – | 76% | ↑ ↓ | 3 h 20 min | Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn | |
| Sat 31 Oct | – | 66% | ↑ ↓ | 4 h 10 min | Mars, Jupiter, Saturn | |
| Sun 1 Nov | – | 55% | ↑ | 4 h 50 min | Mars, Jupiter, Saturn | |
| Mon 2 Nov | – | 43% | ↑ ↓ | 5 h 20 min | Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn |
Moon calendar for October 2026 in Auckland
1 Thu
78%
↓
2 Fri
68%
↑ ↓
3 Sat
57%
↑ ↓
4 Sun
46%
↑ ↓
5 Mon
34%
↑ ↓
6 Tue
24%
↑ ↓
7 Wed
15%
↑ ↓
8 Thu
8%
↑ ↓
9 Fri
3%
↑ ↓
10 Sat
1%
↑ ↓
11 Sun
0%
↑ ↓
12 Mon
2%
↑ ↓
13 Tue
6%
↑ ↓
14 Wed
11%
↑ ↓
15 Thu
18%
↑
16 Fri
26%
↑ ↓
17 Sat
34%
↑ ↓
18 Sun
43%
↑ ↓
19 Mon
53%
↑ ↓
20 Tue
62%
↑ ↓
21 Wed
72%
↑ ↓
22 Thu
80%
↑ ↓
23 Fri
88%
↑ ↓
24 Sat
94%
↑ ↓
25 Sun
98%
↑ ↓
26 Mon
100%
↑ ↓
27 Tue
99%
↑ ↓
28 Wed
95%
↑ ↓
29 Thu
89%
↑ ↓
30 Fri
81%
↓
31 Sat
71%
↑ ↓
Illumination at local noon; ↑ moonrise, ↓ moonset, local time. Moon pictures are drawn as seen from the southern hemisphere, lit side reversed. Phase dates for the whole world: Moon phases October 2026.
Planets this month from Auckland
Coming meteor showers
Southern Taurids
Best on the night of Thu 5 Nov around , when the radiant is 38° up. Under a dark sky expect up to about 4 meteors an hour.
Moon 12% at peak
Northern Taurids
Best on the night of Thu 12 Nov around , when the radiant is 31° up. Under a dark sky expect up to about 3 meteors an hour.
Moon 11% at peak
Leonids
Best on the night of Wed 18 Nov around , when the radiant is 16° up. Under a dark sky expect up to about 4 meteors an hour, fewer this year because the Moon is 55% lit.
Moon 55% at peak
Rate = the shower's zenithal hourly rate × the sine of the radiant's altitude. Real counts are lower from towns and with moonlight; treat this as an upper guide.
Eclipses seen from Auckland
- Penumbral lunar eclipse, 18 July 2027: the Moon is 41° up at greatest eclipse.
- Penumbral lunar eclipse, 17 August 2027: the Moon is 17° up at greatest eclipse.
- Partial lunar eclipse, 6 July 2028: the Moon is 14° up at greatest eclipse.
- Total solar eclipse, 22 July 2028: partial, 0.74 of the Sun's diameter covered (68% of its area), maximum around , Sun 10° up.
- Total lunar eclipse, 31 December 2028: the Moon is 2° up at greatest eclipse; 66% of totality is above the horizon.
- Partial lunar eclipse, 15 June 2030: the Moon is 10° up at greatest eclipse.
Nearby cities
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