Vilnius
October 31, 2026
Tonight's sky
Above the horizon now
5 of 7
bodies of your line stand above the Vilnius horizon at this minute
Tonight's Sky
Why it is worth stepping outside
Every light on this dome is computed for your place and this minute: 1,627 real stars, the five naked eye planets, the Moon at its true phase. Nothing here is hashed from the date, so you can walk outside and check it.
Best planet up, none yet, Saturn is first. It comes over the rim at 16:06 in the E, around magnitude 0.6.
Which way you face
North is the top of the disc.
East on the left rim, west on the right.
What the rim is
The edge of the circle is your skyline.
Dead centre is straight over your head.
How high it stands
Near the rim is low over the rooftops.
Near the middle is close to overhead.
The pale band
That soft stripe is the Milky Way.
It wants a properly dark night to show.
Brightest up there
Arcturus is the brightest star up, 44 degrees over the SW.
Where the Moon sits
The Moon is under the Vilnius horizon at this minute, so it is not on the disc.
The dashed curve
The dotted arc is the ecliptic.
Sun, Moon and planets keep to that road.
The missing ones
Moon and Saturn are under the Vilnius horizon, so absent from the disc.
The star catalog did not load.
1,627 real stars and 5 naked eye planets, Hipparcos by way of HYG. Drawn for Latitude 54.7 north, longitude 25.3 east, at 14:34, redrawn every minute. Measured is computed and checkable; tradition is labelled apart, never as measurement.
65%
of the Moon is lit right now
Tonight, measured
The Moon is a waning gibbous
Under the Vilnius horizon at this minute, so it is not on the disc above. It comes over the rim NE at 20:52.
The terminator drawn here is the terminator over Vilnius tonight, computed from the angle between the Sun and Vilnius at the Moon.
Measured
The whole twilight ladder
The band is tonight's own sky drawn along a clock: sunset on the left, sunrise on the right, and the dark in the middle at its true width. Every rung sits where it truly falls, so the length of real darkness is a distance rather than arithmetic you have to do.
10 hours 32 min
of true astronomical dark tonight, when the faintest stars are within reach
True astronomical dark, 10 hours 32 min
of the Sun covered, from here
Red letter
When it begins
Your line
The seven bodies of your line
Horospire follows the Zoroastrian order in which seven bodies carry seven generations of your ancestry, one body to each generation. The Fravashi is the ancestral guardian spirit that connects a person to that line.
The septenary count belongs to the tradition and it is named here as the tradition names it, beside a position that was computed rather than recalled. Measured first, tradition second.
Sun
in Scorpio
Yourself
14 degrees up in the SW
Moon
in Cancer
Parents
Under the Vilnius horizon until 20:52
Mercury
in Scorpio
Grandparents
Retrograde, moving backwards
Venus
in Libra
Fourth generation
Retrograde, moving backwards
Mars
in Leo
Fifth generation
2 degrees up in the WNW
Jupiter
in Leo
Sixth generation
2 degrees up in the WNW
Saturn
in Aries
Seventh generation
Under the Vilnius horizon until 16:06
Tradition
The four watchers of the quarters
A ninth century Zoroastrian text, the Bundahishn, sets four stars to watch the four quarters of the sky. The quarters, and the names given to them, belong to the tradition. Two of the four modern identifications are settled and two are the best reading of an old text, and each card says which it is.
Watches the east
Identification secure
Sirius
Tishtar, as tradition names it
The brightest star in the whole sky, and the one a beginner finds first.
Under the Vilnius horizon at this minute, watching the east from below it.
Watches the north
Identification secure
Dubhe
Haptoring, as tradition names it
The pointer star of the Plough, which is why the north was given to it.
Above the Vilnius horizon now, 47 degrees up in the NW.
Watches the west
Identification probable
Fomalhaut
Sataves, as tradition names it
A lone bright star in an empty stretch of southern sky.
Under the Vilnius horizon at this minute, watching the west from below it.
Watches the south
Identification probable
Vega
Vanand, as tradition names it
The easiest of the four to find and check against the dome above.
Above the Vilnius horizon now, 66 degrees up in the ESE.
The record
The eight twilight marks, with the Sun's depth Open
The mark is the Sun's depth below the horizon. Zero degrees at sunset and at sunrise, then six, twelve and eighteen degrees down. Those three stages are the same everywhere on Earth. The times change from place to place.
| Sky | Time | Sun | Mark | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16:44 | 0° | Sunset | The Sun crosses the Vilnius horizon and the sky begins to drain. | |
| 17:22 | 6° down | Civil dusk ends | Bright planets and the first stars come out. | |
| 18:05 | 12° down | Nautical dark | The horizon line fades and sea and sky stop being separable. | |
| 18:46 | 18° down | True astronomical night | The faintest stars are available. | |
| 05:18 | 18° down | Astronomical dawn | The faintest stars begin to go. | |
| 06:00 | 12° down | Nautical dawn | The horizon line returns and shapes come back to the land. | |
| 06:43 | 6° down | Civil dawn begins | Bright planets fade out, one magnitude at a time. | |
| 07:21 | 0° | Sunrise | The Sun crosses the Vilnius horizon and the night is spent. |
Every contact of the eclipse Open
| Time | Contact | What happens | Seen from here |
|---|
Every body, its sign and its horizon at this minute Open
The sign column is measured: the body's ecliptic longitude read on tradition's calendar of twelve equal spans. Retrograde comes from a dated station table, never an estimate. The line column is tradition, held apart on purpose.
| Body | Sign now | Horizon now | The line, tradition |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☉ Sun | Scorpio | 14 degrees up in the SW | Yourself |
| ☽ Moon | Cancer | Below the horizon, rises 20:52 in the NE | Parents |
| ☿ Mercury | Scorpio | 13 degrees up in the SSW | Grandparents |
| ♀ Venus | Libra | 8 degrees up in the SW | Fourth generation |
| ♂ Mars | Leo | 2 degrees up in the WNW | Fifth generation |
| ♃ Jupiter | Leo | 2 degrees up in the WNW | Sixth generation |
| ♄ Saturn | Aries | Below the horizon, rises 16:06 in the E | Seventh generation |
Against the same minute last night
The Moon moved 14 degrees east among the stars and stands in Cancer by sign. Its light is 11 per cent dimmer than it was, at 65 per cent lit and waning.
The dated record, computed on the server for 12:00 UTC Open
The sky on 31 October 2026
A phase, a sign, a retrograde and an angle to the Sun do not depend on where you stand, so this block is rendered once on the server and is identical for everybody.
The dome above is the part that does depend on where you are, and it is drawn for your own place and minute.
The seven bodies and their signs on 31 October 2026
| Body | Sign at 12:00 UTC | The line, tradition |
|---|---|---|
| Sun | Scorpio 8° | Yourself |
| Moon | Cancer 20° | Parents |
| Mercury | Scorpio 17° Retrograde | Grandparents |
| Venus | Libra 26° Retrograde | Fourth generation |
| Mars | Leo 18° | Fifth generation |
| Jupiter | Leo 24° | Sixth generation |
| Saturn | Aries 9° Retrograde | Seventh generation |
The sign column is measured
The body's ecliptic longitude at 12:00 UTC, the same from every point on Earth.
The line column is tradition
Held apart on purpose, and never presented as a measurement.
The whole of 31 October 2026, in plain words
- On 31 October 2026 the Moon is a Waning Gibbous, 65 percent lit, standing in Cancer.
- On 31 October 2026 the naked eye planet that stays up longest after sunset is Saturn, about 151 degrees east of the Sun; how long it lingers after sunset depends on your latitude, and the dome above answers that.
- On 31 October 2026 Mercury stands about 9 degrees from the Sun, close enough to be lost in the glare.
- On 31 October 2026 Venus stands about 12 degrees from the Sun, close enough to be lost in the glare.
- On 31 October 2026 Mars stands about 80 degrees west of the Sun, so it leads the Sun up and belongs to the hours before dawn; the dome above shows it against your own horizon.
- On 31 October 2026 Jupiter stands about 74 degrees west of the Sun, so it leads the Sun up and belongs to the hours before dawn; the dome above shows it against your own horizon.
- On 31 October 2026 Saturn stands about 151 degrees from the Sun, near enough to opposite it that it is above the horizon for most of the night.
- On 31 October 2026 Mercury, Venus and Saturn are retrograde, which means they appear to move backwards against the stars from where we watch.
- On 31 October 2026 the seven classical bodies stand as follows: the Sun in Scorpio, the Moon in Cancer, Mercury in Scorpio, Venus in Libra, Mars in Leo, Jupiter in Leo and Saturn in Aries.
How it is computed
Every figure in this section is computed from public domain Meeus algorithms for 12:00 UTC on 31 October 2026, the same anchor the rest of this site uses for a dated sky. Nothing here is hashed from the date, and nothing here depends on where you stand, which is why it can be the same for every reader.
Two registers, kept apart Open
Measured
Star, planet and Moon positions are computed from your coordinates and the clock, to well under a degree. Rise and set times, twilight stages and the Moon's lit fraction are calculated the same way, for your place and minute. Nothing on this page is hashed from the date.
Tradition
The zodiac signs used in readings are thirty degree spans of the year anchored to the equinox. The constellations behind them are unequal star patterns, and the two drifted about twenty four degrees apart over the centuries. Generation names, watcher names and sign meanings are tradition, and are never presented as measurement.
The watcher identifications
Which modern star stands behind each Bundahishn name is a separate question from the tradition itself. Two of the four are settled. Two are the best reading of an old text and could be wrong, and that is said on the cards rather than buried here.
The rule
Violet on this page always means tradition, and never a measurement. The registers never blend, and no star is ever for sale.
Ephemeris
Public domain Meeus algorithms, run for your coordinates and this clock.
Stars
Hipparcos by way of the HYG catalogue, carried live on the dome above.
Tradition
The Bundahishn, a ninth century Zoroastrian text, for the watchers and the order of the seven.
Emblems
The zodiac emblems are game-icons.net by Delapouite, CC BY 3.0.