Live Astronomy Webcams

Astronomy webcams watch the sky and the places where it is studied: observatories, telescope domes, dark-sky sites, aurora zones and space-related facilities. All-sky cameras with fisheye lenses show the whole sky at once, from horizon to horizon.

The night sky is the main subject. On clear nights these cameras catch stars wheeling across the frame, the Milky Way, meteors during the annual showers and, at high latitudes, the green and purple curtains of the aurora. A camera in a remote, dark place often shows far more than a city sky ever could.

Astronomy depends on the weather and the moon. Cloud hides everything, a full moon washes out faint stars, and the long nights of winter give the most viewing time, while near the poles summer nights barely get dark. Aurora activity follows the solar cycle and geomagnetic storms, and space weather forecasts tell when it is worth watching. By day many of these cameras show only an observatory building or a blue sky.