Current Planetary Positions: Where the Planets Are Now

Pick your city and press Show the sky: you get the sky of this minute above that place as astrology reads it. The Sun, the Moon and the rising sign come first, then the zodiac wheel and every planet's sign, house and degree, with an R when it is retrograde. For people who follow astrology and want the current positions without casting a chart by hand. Free, no account, nothing stored.

What it does, and why it is here

The planets change sign on their own schedules, the Moon every two or three days and Saturn every two years or so, and several turn retrograde for weeks or months at a time. Knowing where they all stand right now means reading a table of positions and working out the houses yourself, or casting a chart for the present moment. This page casts it in one step, for the current minute unless you give another.

The city matters for part of the answer only. At a given minute the planets are in the same signs, at the same degrees, everywhere on Earth; the city decides the houses and the rising sign, which run through the whole zodiac in a day.

What you fill in

• City: type a few letters and pick your city from the suggestions, which fills in its latitude, longitude and time zone. The button stays inactive until you do.
• Date and time: optional. Leave it empty for the current minute on the city's own clock. Fill it to see the sky at another moment, past or future, from 1550 to 2649. What you type is read as local time at that city, with its daylight-saving rule for that date, so 9 p.m. in Paris in July means 9 p.m. summer time.
• House system: Placidus by default, or whole sign, equal or Koch. Changing it never moves the planets, only the houses they fall in. Placidus and Koch do not exist beyond the polar circles: for a city above about 66.6 degrees of latitude, north or south, the page says so and names the two systems that work there, whole sign and equal houses.

What you get back

The answer opens with Sky as of, then the date, the time and the time zone it was cast for, and follows in this order.

• The three that most people ask for: the Sun, the Moon and the Ascendant (the rising sign), each with its sign and its degree within the sign. Beside them, the dominant element and the dominant modality, with their share.
• The sky at this moment: the zodiac wheel, with the house system named under it. The Sun, the Moon, the eight planets, the North Node and Black Moon Lilith sit at their angle around the twelve signs, an R beside each one moving backward; how far a symbol sits from the center means nothing. House I begins at nine o'clock: that is the Ascendant, except with whole signs, where it is the start of the rising sign. Lines join bodies in aspect: the five major aspects always, the minor ones only when close to exact.
• Shape of the chart: the named aspect patterns it contains (grand trine, T-square, grand cross, yod, mystic rectangle, kite, stellium) or none; the Jones pattern, one of seven shapes from bundle to splay, with a line describing it; how many planets stand above and below the horizon and east and west of the meridian, counted by house; the planets that are retrograde; and the planet with the most aspects.
• Planetary positions: a table of eighteen rows, from the Sun to Pluto, then the two lunar nodes, Black Moon Lilith, the Part of Fortune, the Ascendant, the Midheaven, the Descendant and the Imum Coeli. Each row gives the sign, the house and the degree in degrees and minutes, with R for a retrograde body.
• House cusps: where each of the twelve houses begins, as a sign and a degree.
• Elemental balance and modal balance: fire, earth, air and water, then cardinal, fixed and mutable, each as a percentage. They are weighted: the Sun, the Moon, the Ascendant and the Midheaven count more than the slow planets.
• Aspects: every pair of bodies in aspect, which aspect it is, and its orb in degrees, the distance from exact.

The positions follow DE440, the planetary tables published by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in the tropical zodiac of Western astrology, as seen from the center of the Earth. The form keeps your city, date and house system, so pressing the button again with the date left empty gives the sky of the current minute.

What it does not do

• It is not a map of the night sky. It places each body along the zodiac, not at a height and a direction above your horizon, so it will not tell you where to look, whether a planet is visible tonight, or when it rises. The above-the-horizon count follows the houses, not an observation.
• It does not interpret. No meaning is attached to a placement, a retrograde or an aspect, and the sky is not laid over your birth chart.
• It has no sidereal zodiac, so no Vedic positions, and no Chiron or asteroids.
• It does not go before 1550 or after 2649. Such a date is refused with that reason: the ephemerides the positions come from stop there.

The symbols in the answer, and how long each body stays in a sign

The retrograde column says how often the R appears beside each body. Figures are read from the same ephemeris as the answer.

Questions

What planets are retrograde right now?

The ones marked R in the planetary positions after you press Show the sky, also listed under the shape of the chart. The two lunar nodes always carry an R: the mean nodes shown here only ever move backward.

What sign is rising right now?

The Ascendant, shown at the top of the answer with its degree, is the sign rising at your city at that minute. It changes often: in Paris a sign rises in as little as an hour (Pisces, Aries) or as long as two and three-quarter hours (Leo to Scorpio), so the city and the minute both matter.

Why do I need a city to see where the planets are?

For the houses and the rising sign, not for the planets: every city gets the same signs and degrees at the same minute.

Can I see the sky for another day or time?

Yes: fill in Date and time with any moment from 1550 to 2649. It is read as local time at the city you picked.

Which house system should I choose?

Keep Placidus unless you already use another: it is the default here and in most charts. Above the polar circles, where it does not exist, choose whole sign or equal houses.

Is the answer live?

No: it shows the minute you pressed the button. Press it again, date left empty, for a fresh one.

Sources and further reading

• JPL Development Ephemeris: the DE440 tables the positions follow, and the years 1550 to 2650 they cover.
• House (astrology): Placidus, whole sign, equal and Koch houses, and why some fail beyond the polar circles.
• Apparent retrograde motion: why a planet seems to move backward, which is what the R marks.