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Your Place in Space

You are hereYour spot on Earth and tonight's Moon: rise, peak, set
Solar SystemWatch the year turn: seasons, birth signs, eclipses, meteors
DynamicsSee the planets orbit and Kepler's laws at work
StoryFollow the discoveries in the order humans made them
NavigateMeasure the sky with a sextant and find where you stand

02Solar System

One year around the Sun

JANUARY

Winter · Northern hemisphere

Earth’s axis tilts 23.44° and aims the same way all year. That tilt makes the seasons.

Zodiac · ecliptic

From Earth, the Sun covers CAPRICORN

Gold line: Earth → Sun → star background. The Sun drifts ~1°/day along the ecliptic, its yearly track. Daylight glare hides those stars now.

Day sky · constellation lost in glare

Sun path

43.7° N · your place

Tilt raises the summer arc so the Sun stays up longer. Scrub time to watch the path change. Fast speeds settle into long-exposure arcs and one same-clock-time dot per day: the analemma.

Why the Sun rises and sets

Earth spins

The gold YOU marker is your place. Earth carries it across the terminator into daylight, then back into night.

43.7° N · 79.4° W · your place

Eclipses

The Moon’s orbit tips 5.1° from the ecliptic, Earth’s orbit plane. Most months its shadow slides above or below. Drag the line-up to land it.

25% aligned · miss

At 100% the Moon's shadow paints Earth: dark umbra core, wide partial penumbra. Tilt and sizes exaggerated.

Meteor showers

Shooting stars

A shooting star is glowing air about 100 km up. A dust grain from space enters the atmosphere and heats a channel of air white in under a second.

A meteor shower comes when Earth crosses dust a comet shed along its orbit. Earth reaches each crossing in the same weeks every year.

Simulation time · UTC

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Drag to orbit · scroll to zoom · tap a sign for its stars in 3DSizes & distances enhanced for claritySky positions by Astronomy Engine