Night sky tonight in Chicago
The night of Sunday 18 October to Monday 19 October 2026
At a glance
Sunset 18:01, properly dark from 19:06, getting light from 06:05, sunrise 07:10 (local time).
The Moon is 56 per cent lit and waxing, setting at 23:48. It is in the zodiac sign of Aquarius.
The planets
- Jupiter: visible from 02:46 to 05:56, highest at 05:56 in the southeast, 46° up, near Regulus. Magnitude −1.8.
- Saturn: visible from 19:06 to 04:46, highest at 23:46 in the south, 50° up. Magnitude 0.4.
- Mars: visible from 01:56 to 05:56, highest at 05:56 in the southeast, 55° up. Magnitude 1.0.
Not visible: Mercury, Venus (too close to the Sun or not up in the dark).
ISS and space stations
- ISS: Monday 19 October, 05:42 to 05:46, from the northwest to the northeast, up to 40°
- ISS: Tuesday 20 October, 04:57 to 04:58, from the northeast to the northeast, up to 28°
- ISS: Wednesday 21 October, 05:44 to 05:47, from the northwest to the northeast, up to 23°
Visible passes this night and the next two: the station lit by the Sun, the sky dark. It glides across the sky as a bright steady point, without blinking.
High in the sky at 10 pm
This week in the sky
- Comet 161P/Hartley-IRAS at its brightest: About magnitude 9.7: at the limit of binoculars, better in a telescope
- Orionids: peak: Up to 20 meteors an hour under an ideally dark sky. The Moon is 78 per cent lit then and drowns the fainter ones.