Astronomy Essentials

Looking for sky almanacs? EarthSky recommends …

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April 10, 2026

Almanacs: Giant full moon, partly shadowed, rising with silhouetted tree and two tiny people in foreground. — View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Marsha Chan in Los Angeles, California, captured this celestial trifecta – of the Harvest Moon, a supermoon and a partial lunar eclipse – on September 17, 2024. Thank you, Marsha! See some suggestions below for some recommended almanacs.

Want to know the rising and setting times for the sun, moon and planets in your sky? Here are some resources for you. We can’t answer every inquiry individually, but we can direct you to some wonderful almanacs that provide this information.

Rising and setting times are for locations with a level horizon.

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Recommended almanacs

Custom Sunrise Sunset Calendar
This site provides a printable monthly calendar that gives you the sunrise/sunset and moonrise/moonset times, and the phases of the moon. Optional features include times for civil, nautical and astronomical twilight, and the definitions for these different shades of twilight.

Old Farmer’s Almanac
Calculate rise and set times for the sun, moon and planets (including the dwarf planet Pluto!) for any location in the U.S. and Canada.

timeanddate.com sunrise/sunset calculator
Find the sunrise/sunset times for cities all around the world.

timeanddate.com planet guide
Gives the rising and setting times for Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune for any chosen location.

Australian National University
Gives rise/transit/set times for the sun, moon and bright planets for anyplace worldwide. You need to know your latitude and longitude. Try latlong.net to find that.

Heavens-Above
Information on when the International Space Station and other satellites are visible in your sky.

A photo from our EarthSky community

Short, concentric white lines in the deep blue sky with two streaks arcing across them above foreground scenery. — View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Jose Zarcos Palma captured this image on July 28. 2025, from Portugal. Jose wrote: “During nautical twilight, the two space stations – ISS and TIANGONG – cross the same region of the sky just a few minutes apart. On the right side of the image, we can also see the moon’s trail, with an illumination of about 18%. The apparent motion of the stars and the moon correspond to the period between the beginning of the ISS’s ascent and the end of Tiangong’s visibility (~24 minutes).” Thank you, Jose!

Bottom line: Find out rising and setting times for the sun, the moon, planets, and satellites at the almanac sites linked here.

Posted

April 10, 2026

Astronomy Essentials

Bruce McClure

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About the Author:

Bruce McClure served as lead writer for EarthSky's popular Tonight pages from 2004 to 2021, when he opted for a much-deserved retirement. You can still find many articles at EarthSky.org that were originally written by Bruce, and which the EarthSky editors still update regularly. Bruce is a sundial aficionado, whose love for the heavens has taken him to Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and sailing in the North Atlantic, where he earned his celestial navigation certificate through the School of Ocean Sailing and Navigation. He also wrote and hosted public astronomy programs and planetarium programs in and around his home in upstate New York. Bruce he loves cycles of all kinds! You can still find many articles at EarthSky with Bruce's name on them, exploring the various, intricate cycles of the sky.

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