Home / Science / Astronomy and space / Observing / Observing session plannerTool #18

Observing session planner: tonight's sky, targets, alignment and log sheet on one page

Pick the astronomy tools you need for a night (sky tonight, target heights, polar alignment, your telescope, the month's events and a log sheet), see them together on one page, and download them as one image, PDF or Word file, or each on its own.

Keep it one tap away for everyday use.

Bookmark Observing session planner?

Press Ctrl + D now. Your browser opens its own bookmark box, where you choose the name and folder.

  1. Pick tools
  2. Your place
  3. One page
  4. One file
Nothing is uploadedWorks offline once open

What do you want in your session?

Details

Download

All together, one file:

Or download any part on its own with the buttons under it below.

Everything for one night, together

On a clear night you might need four or five tools: when it gets dark, where the planets are, when your targets are high, where Polaris goes in the polar scope, which eyepiece to use, and a sheet to write on. This page puts the ones you choose together, for the same place and night. You can download them as one image, PDF or Word file to print or keep on your phone, or download any part on its own.

How to use it

  1. Set your place and the night at the top. Your location stays on your device.
  2. Tick what you want in your session:
    • Sky tonight: sunset, dark hours, the Moon, a chart of the planets and the best deep-sky objects for what you observe with.
    • Target heights: a chart and table for your own list, such as M31, M45, M42, Saturn, with meridian times and airmass.
    • Polar alignment: where Polaris (or Sigma Octantis) sits in the polar scope at the time you plan to set up.
    • Telescope, eyepieces and camera: power, true field and exit pupil for each eyepiece, plus camera scale and field.
    • Sky events this month: Moon phases, meteor showers, eclipses and planet events.
    • Blank observing log sheet: a printable table to fill in at the telescope.
  3. Fill in the details for the parts you picked. Only the fields you need are shown.
  4. Download All together as one file, or use Just this part under any section. Each section also links to its full tool, where you can do more.

Tips

  • Print the PDF on paper, or keep the image on your phone with the Red light mode of fibub’s astronomy tools for the screen.
  • The page remembers your choices for this tab, so you can switch to a full tool and come back.
  • Making a plan for a club night? The Word file is easy to edit and add your own notes to before you share it.

Worked example

For a Saturday in November from Toronto, tick Sky tonight, Target heights and the log sheet. Type M31, M45, M42, Saturn and choose Small telescope. The page shows dark from about 18:40, Saturn best in the evening, M31 almost overhead at 21:52, and M42 highest at about 02:45. Press PDF under All together for a three-page plan with a 12-row log sheet at the end.

Questions

Is anything uploaded? No. Every part is worked out in your browser, and the page keeps working offline once it has loaded.

Can I add my own targets by coordinates? On this page, targets come from the catalogue (Messier, bright NGC and IC objects, planets and the Moon). For anything else, use the target altitude planner, which accepts name, RA, Dec.

Where the numbers come from

  • Sun, Moon and planet positions: astronomy-engine by Don Cross (MIT licence), accurate to about an arcminute.
  • Deep-sky objects: the OpenNGC catalogue by Mattia Verga (CC BY-SA 4.0).
  • City coordinates and time zones: public geographic facts, typed by fibub.
  • Telescope and camera examples: common apertures, focal lengths and sensor sizes, typed by fibub.

Standard scientific values, such as constants, atomic weights and melting points, are facts found in every textbook; we name where ours were checked. If you are an author or publisher and want a value, a credit or a table changed or removed, tell us and we will act quickly.

Last updated 2026-11-07.

Change log for Observing session planner

  1. Show where each science tool's numbers come from, with a removal-request link Details on GitHub
  2. Tool #numbers, the name's meaning, and the MIT License Details on GitHub
  3. Observing session page: pick astronomy tools, download together or one by one Details on GitHub

Every change to fibub

Related tools

Sky tonight #13 For your place and date: sunset, when it gets properly dark, the Moon's phase and rise and set times, where each planet is, and the best galaxies, clusters and nebulae for your eyes, binoculars or telescope. Target altitude planner #14 Plot how high your targets climb through the night, against your own trees and roofs. Get meridian (pier flip) times, the hours above a useful height, airmass and parallactic angle for one target or a whole list. Polar alignment helper #15 See the clock position of Polaris (or Sigma Octantis in the south) for your place and time, drawn on a polar scope reticle, so you can line up your equatorial mount in a minute. Sky events calendar #16 A month-by-month sky calendar for your place: Moon phases and how much is lit each night, meteor shower peaks, eclipses you can see, planet oppositions and elongations, and equinoxes, with a one-tap calendar file. Observing log #17 Log what you see at the eyepiece or camera: object, equipment, seeing, transparency and notes. Each time you save, choose a new log file or add to an existing one, so your files grow into a database of every observation. Transit planner #54 Type a planet's ephemeris and see every upcoming transit with ingress, middle and egress on your clock, the star's altitude, darkness, the Moon, how much you can see and how uncertain the timing is. Eclipse finder #65 List every solar and lunar eclipse you can see from your place for up to 50 years, with local start, peak and end times, how much is covered, the Sun or Moon's height, and a picture you can scrub through. Jupiter's moons #62 See where Jupiter's four large moons are at any moment, in the same orientation as your eyepiece, and list the coming transits, shadow transits, occultations and eclipses you can see from your place. Sub-exposure calculator #42 Find the shortest sub length that buries your camera's read noise under sky noise, from a test frame or from your sky brightness. Works for one-shot colour, LRGB and narrowband, with a chart of what each length costs. Dark-sky calendar #45 See a whole year of nights at once: twilight, true darkness and moonlight for your place, the Moon-free dark hours in each month, and the best nights for deep-sky observing and imaging. Telescope and camera calculator #19 Enter your telescope, eyepieces and camera to see magnification, true field, exit pupil, faintest stars, image scale and whether your camera suits your seeing, with a picture of what fits in the view.