Sky this Week | Astronomy.com

Photograph of Saturn against a black background, tilted with its northern hemisphere tipped toward the viewer and pale cream and tan cloud bands crossing its globe. The wide ring system casts a dark shadow band across the planet's upper portion, with a faint bluish tint visible at the upper edge of the rings where they cross in front of the disk.

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The Sky This Week from October 2 to 9: Saturn at its best

A Voyager 2 spacecraft image of Neptune showing the planet as a sphere with vivid blue and teal atmospheric bands, a large dark storm system visible in the southern hemisphere, and bright white clouds including a prominent high-altitude cloud streak near the center. The planet's limb glows with a subtle golden hue against the black background of space.

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The Sky This Week from September 25 to October 2: Neptune at opposition

A photograph of the autumnal equinox sunrise over a hazy rural landscape in Spain, showing the Sun as a large, heavily distorted red-orange disc flattened by atmospheric refraction just above the treeline. A silhouetted tree line, distant mountains, and what appears to be a castle or fortress on a hilltop are visible through the haze. Pink-tinted clouds and a gray-blue sky fill the upper portion of the frame, and a flat golden field stretches across the foreground.

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The Sky This Week from September 18 to 25: Autumn begins

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The Sky This Week from September 11 to 18: Catch the zodiacal light

A sky chart showing the eastern sky on September 6, 2026, one hour before sunrise. The crescent Moon glows brightly near the top center with Mars just below and to its right. Castor and Pollux are labeled in the middle left, Jupiter shines as a bright point in the lower left, Procyon is visible to the right, and Betelgeuse glows orange in the upper right corner. The sky fades from deep blue-black above to a subtle twilight glow near the dark horizon silhouette.

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The Sky This Week from September 4 to 11: The Moon joins Jupiter and Mars

A panoramic twilight photograph taken along the rocky shore of the Salish Sea, looking west across calm water that mirrors the vivid sunset colors. Venus and Spica are visible as two close points of light in the deep blue sky above the center of the scene. The horizon glows in brilliant bands of orange and yellow, fading upward through purple to deep blue, with silhouetted clouds stretched across the middle sky. A silhouetted house is visible on the left, dark rocky outcroppings frame the foreground, and a distant mountain range is outlined against the orange glow on the right.

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The Sky This Week from August 28 to September 4: Venus and Spica meet

A photograph of a total lunar eclipse showing the Moon glowing in deep red and crimson hues — a blood moon — against a black sky. The Moon's surface features, including its darker maria regions, are still faintly visible through the red coloration. A thin sliver of brighter bluish-white light is visible along the upper edge, suggesting the Moon is just beginning to exit or enter Earth's umbral shadow.

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The Sky This Week from August 21 to 28: Eclipsed Sturgeon Moon

A sky chart showing the eastern sky on August 15, 2026, 40 minutes before sunrise. Mercury and Jupiter are shown in very close conjunction near the horizon, appearing as a tight pair of bright points just above the dark treeline silhouette in a warm golden-orange pre-dawn sky. Castor and Pollux are labeled in the upper center, and Procyon is visible to the right.

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The Sky This Week from August 14 to 21: Mercury and Jupiter meet

A photograph of a total solar eclipse at totality, showing the Moon as a dark disc completely blocking the Sun, surrounded by the softly glowing white solar corona against a black sky. Several small pink solar prominences are visible along the edge of the Moon.

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The Sky This Week from August 7 to 14: A solar eclipse and shooting stars

A sky chart showing the eastern sky on August 2, 2026, one hour before sunrise. Mars glows as a warm orange point in the upper center of the image. The twin stars Castor and Pollux are visible in the middle left, Mercury shines brightly just above the horizon in the lower center, and the red supergiant star Betelgeuse is visible to the right. The sky fades from deep blue above to a warm twilight glow near the treeline silhouette.

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The Sky This Week from July 31 to August 7: Mercury stands west of the Sun

A wide-angle nightscape photograph showing a bright meteor streaking diagonally across a star-filled sky. The meteor leaves a sharp, glowing trail as it travels from upper right toward the center of the frame. The silhouettes of pine trees and rolling hills line the bottom of the image, with a faint warm glow along the horizon suggesting distant city lights or moonlight.

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The Sky This Week from July 24 to 31: The Southern Delta Aquariids peak

The Moon as it will appear on July 20, 2026

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The Sky This Week from July 17 to 24: Lunar time travel