Astronomy Essentials

Looking for sky almanacs? EarthSky recommends …

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January 1, 2023

Almanacs: Bright full moon, rising above treetops. — View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Brandi Mullins of Ferrum, Virginia wrote on January 6, 2023: “On my way to work this afternoon and couldn’t help but to pull over to snap a picture of tonight’s full Wolf Moon. It was so breathtakingly beautiful!” Thank you, Brandi! 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 to some wonderful almanacs that provide this information.

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

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.

Heavens-Above

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

Several different sized small white dots for Beehive and Mars, Venus, twin stars, long dotted red lines for ISS. — View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Mohammad Adeel in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, captured this image on June 2, 2023 and wrote: “It had been a while since ISS showed up in the sky and tonight I had the chance to capture it with some interesting conjunctions in the night sky. Planet Venus being at greatest western elongation and shining brightly was lining up with the twins (Pollux and Castor) in a straight line while planet Mars was almost over the beehive cluster and having ISS in the frame was too much of a busy sky not to be captured.” Thank you, Mohammad!

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

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January 1, 2023

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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. He's 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.