Sun and twilight
- Sunset
- Civil twilight ends
- Nautical twilight ends
- Astronomical darkness
- –
- Sunrise
Tonight at a glance
The Moon
98%
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.
Binoculars first. Ordinary 7x50 or 10x50 binoculars show Jupiter's four largest moons, the Moon's craters, the Pleiades and countless clusters. They are easier to start with than a telescope and need no setting up.
Tonight hour by hour
Day Civil twilight Nautical Astronomical Full dark · bars show when each body is above the horizon
Planets tonight
Mars
Morning: rises around in the east-northeast, best near , 61° up in the south-southeast.
Jupiter
Morning: rises around in the east-northeast, best near , 55° up in the southeast.
Saturn
Evening: from low in the east-southeast, sets around in the west.
Uranus binoculars
Morning: rises around in the east-northeast, best near , 67° up in the south.
Neptune binoculars
Evening: from low in the east-southeast 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 Toronto 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).
-
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 .
-
Máni, who in Snorri's words decides the Moon's waxing and waning, has made it waning gibbous, 98% lit. It rises at ; it sets at . The wolf Hati runs ahead of it.
-
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 east-northeast horizon from about , highest around (76° S).
-
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 southeast horizon from about , highest around (30° S).
-
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-southeast horizon from about , highest around (45° S).
-
Medieval Icelandic texts call the Big Dipper simply vagn, the wain; Karlsvagn, 'the carl's wain', is its later Scandinavian name. The Wain is up all night, circling the pole, highest around (44° up in the northeast).
-
Leiðarstjarna, 'the way-star', is the Old Norse name for the pole star that sailors steered by. From Toronto it stays 44° above the northern horizon all night, while every other star wheels round it.
-
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 east-northeast horizon from about , highest around (70° S).
-
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-southeast horizon from about , highest around (38° S).
- Not up tonight
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 Toronto; "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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tue 27 Oct | NE | 15° NE | NE | 0.9 min |
| Tue 27 Oct | NW | 33° NNE | E | 5.9 min |
| Wed 28 Oct | N | 27° NNE | ENE | 3.6 min |
| Thu 29 Oct | NE | 17° NE | ENE | 1.3 min |
| Thu 29 Oct | NW | 65° NE | ESE | 6.2 min |
| Fri 30 Oct | N | 44° NNE | E | 3.9 min |
| Sat 31 Oct | ENE | 21° ENE | E | 1.4 min |
| Sat 31 Oct | WNW | 49° SSW | SE | 5.6 min |
| Sun 1 Nov | WSW | 80° S | SE | 3.5 min |
| Mon 2 Nov | ESE | 20° ESE | ESE | 1.2 min |
| Mon 2 Nov | WSW | 18° SW | S | 3.7 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 | – | 94% | ↑ ↓ | — | Mars, Jupiter, Saturn | |
| Wed 28 Oct | – | 88% | ↑ | — | Mars, Jupiter, Saturn | |
| Thu 29 Oct | – | 79% | ↑ ↓ | 55 min | Mars, Jupiter, Saturn | |
| Fri 30 Oct | – | 69% | ↑ ↓ | 2 h 10 min | Mars, Jupiter, Saturn | |
| Sat 31 Oct | – | 58% | ↑ ↓ | 3 h 25 min | Mars, Jupiter, Saturn | |
| Sun 1 Nov | – | 46% | ↑ ↓ | 4 h 45 min | Mars, Jupiter, Saturn | |
| Mon 2 Nov | – | 35% | ↑ ↓ | 6 h 05 min | Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn |
Moon calendar for October 2026 in Toronto
1 Thu
71%
↑ ↓
2 Fri
60%
↑ ↓
3 Sat
49%
↓
4 Sun
38%
↑ ↓
5 Mon
27%
↑ ↓
6 Tue
18%
↑ ↓
7 Wed
10%
↑ ↓
8 Thu
5%
↑ ↓
9 Fri
1%
↑ ↓
10 Sat
0%
↑ ↓
11 Sun
1%
↑ ↓
12 Mon
4%
↑ ↓
13 Tue
9%
↑ ↓
14 Wed
16%
↑ ↓
15 Thu
23%
↑ ↓
16 Fri
32%
↑ ↓
17 Sat
41%
↑ ↓
18 Sun
50%
↑
19 Mon
60%
↑ ↓
20 Tue
69%
↑ ↓
21 Wed
78%
↑ ↓
22 Thu
86%
↑ ↓
23 Fri
92%
↑ ↓
24 Sat
97%
↑ ↓
25 Sun
100%
↑ ↓
26 Mon
99%
↑ ↓
27 Tue
97%
↑ ↓
28 Wed
91%
↑ ↓
29 Thu
84%
↑ ↓
30 Fri
74%
↑ ↓
31 Sat
63%
↑ ↓
Illumination at local noon; ↑ moonrise, ↓ moonset, local time. Phase dates for the whole world: Moon phases October 2026.
Planets this month from Toronto
Coming meteor showers
Southern Taurids
Best on the night of Thu 5 Nov around , when the radiant is 61° up. Under a dark sky expect up to about 6 meteors an hour.
Moon 12% at peak
Northern Taurids
Best on the night of Thu 12 Nov around , when the radiant is 68° up. Under a dark sky expect up to about 5 meteors an hour.
Moon 11% at peak
Leonids
Best on the night of Tue 17 Nov around , when the radiant is 67° up. Under a dark sky expect up to about 14 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 Toronto
- Penumbral lunar eclipse, 20 February 2027: the Moon is 3° up at greatest eclipse.
- Penumbral lunar eclipse, 17 August 2027: the Moon is 27° up at greatest eclipse.
- Partial lunar eclipse, 12 January 2028: the Moon is 64° up at greatest eclipse.
- Annular solar eclipse, 26 January 2028: partial, 0.04 of the Sun's diameter covered (1% of its area), maximum around , Sun 18° up.
- Partial solar eclipse, 14 January 2029: partial, 0.62 of the Sun's diameter covered (52% of its area), maximum around , Sun 25° up.
- Total lunar eclipse, 26 June 2029: the Moon is 17° up at greatest eclipse; 100% of totality is above the horizon.
- Total lunar eclipse, 20 December 2029: the Moon is 9° up at greatest eclipse; 100% of totality is above the horizon.
- Penumbral lunar eclipse, 9 December 2030: the Moon is 7° up at greatest eclipse.
Nearby cities
Somewhere else? Use your own location: the sky is computed in your browser and the location never leaves your device.