Giordano Observatory · free tools
Moon phases, Moon & Sun
La Luna di oggi com'è davvero, le prossime fasi, il calendario del mese con le notti buie, alba, tramonto, crepuscoli, ora d'oro e ora blu per il tuo luogo.
Tools for amateur astronomers are on their way
Free tools for anyone who observes and photographs the sky, designed by our observatory: we're testing them with a small group of amateur astronomers before opening them to everyone.
- Which telescope is right for you5 questions and the 3 right telescopes, with the reasons why
- Field of viewYour telescope with any camera, on a real photo of the sky
- What to image tonightThe best objects from your location, with the Moon, comets and meteor showers
- Astronomy weatherClouds, humidity, dew and wind, hour by hour, with satellite and radar
- Sky chart and MoonTonight's sky, the Moon's phases and sky events for your calendar
- Camera databaseAstronomy cameras, DSLRs and mirrorless cameras compared
- 21 calculatorsMagnification, exposure times, backfocus, mounts and more
- Your observing logThe objects you've seen and imaged, with the 110-object Messier challenge
We'll let you know as soon as they're ready
The Moon and the Sun for your location
The Moon image comes from NASA for the time you choose, with its true phase, libration and apparent size. You can see its age, its distance, the times of moonrise, transit and moonset, and the next phases: new moon, first quarter, full moon and last quarter.
This month's dark nights
For each night, the calendar shows how many hours of moonless darkness remain: the nights in green are the best for galaxies and nebulae. For the Sun: sunrise, solar noon, sunset, civil, nautical and astronomical twilight, golden hour and blue hour, and today's Sun as seen by NASA's SDO satellite.
Data: object catalogue from Stellarium (SIMBAD/VizieR, CDS Strasbourg); Digitized Sky Survey sky photos (STScI/NASA) via hips2fits (CDS); sky map by Giordano Astronomia with ESA's Hipparcos and Tycho-2 star catalogues; places: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); sky darkness from the NASA Black Marble 2016 night lights (VIIRS, NASA Earth Observatory / GIBS); ephemerides computed with J. Meeus's algorithms and JPL orbital elements. Camera data from the manufacturers' official spec sheets.
✦ Tools designed and developed by Mattia Toto for Giordano Astronomia · @toto.astrophoto