Night sky tonight in London
The night of Sunday 18 October to Monday 19 October 2026
At a glance
Sunset 18:34, properly dark from 19:40, getting light from 06:40, sunrise 07:46 (local time).
The Moon is 55 per cent lit and waxing, setting at 00:17. It is in the zodiac sign of Aquarius.
The planets
- Jupiter: visible from 03:20 to 06:30, highest at 06:30 in the southeast, 45° up, near Regulus. Magnitude −1.8.
- Saturn: visible from 19:40 to 05:20, highest at 00:20 in the south, 49° up. Magnitude 0.4.
- Mars: visible from 02:20 to 06:30, highest at 06:30 in the southeast, 54° 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, 05:09 to 05:10, from the east to the east, up to 20°
- ISS: Tuesday 20 October, 05:57 to 06:00, from the north to the northeast, up to 45°
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.