Celestial Positions
This page shows the rise time, set time, and current position for various celestial bodies from the perspective of an observer in Cambridge, MA (42.39, -71.14 at an elevation of 0 meters). For auto-updating data for any location, check out the real-time page.
Positions
Calculated on 2025-04-03 at 12:32:08 (ET).
| Rises | Sets | Azimuth | Altitude | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun | 06:21 | 19:13 | 174º | 53º |
| Moon | 10:36 | 02:10 | 76º | 27º |
| Mars | 12:02 | 03:19 | 61º | 4º |
| Jupiter | 09:21 | 00:27 | 88º | 32º |
| Saturn | 05:47 | 17:27 | 198º | 42º |
| Pleiades | 08:00 | 23:23 | 99º | 47º |
| Andromeda | 02:55 | 22:19 | 125º | 88º |
Background
Have you ever seen Saturn or Jupiter through a telescope? They almost look fake, as if some kid made paper cutouts and stuck them on the far end of the lens. It's awe inspiring to peer out at them as they float in space.
You can see them with the naked eye too—they look like stars, but over the course of days and weeks they move through the sky. I like to know where they are (Mars too) and made this as a tool to help me find them. It also helps me realize when they're not visible (for example, if a planet is only above the horizon during the day).
A couple definitions:
- Azimuth is the compass direction along the horizon
- Altitude is the angle above the horizon
I've often used the iOS App Sky Guide to locate objects in the sky, but I want to get better at finding them using azimuth and altitude.
Credits
This page uses the Astronomy Engine package to calculate celestial positions. Thank you to the author for writing such a powerful and easy to use tool! It's wonderful and impressive that we can use open source software to predict the location of celestial objects.