Transient Explorer

What am I looking at?

Every night the Rubin (LSST) and ZTF telescopes image the sky and flag anything that changed since last time: a supernova going off, a star flaring, an asteroid passing through. Each flag is an alert. The Fink broker classifies them, and this site shows what they are and where.

Pages

  • Dashboard: how many alerts and objects arrived in a window, what kinds, where on the sky, and the brightest new supernova candidates.
  • Sky: the map. Most of what follows is about it.
  • Objects: the same objects as a table you can sort, filter by the broker's label or TNS type, and page through; click one for its light curve and images.
  • Tonight: a planner for your telescope. Pick your site and telescope, and it lists the supernovae, novae and new objects seen this week that are above your horizon while it is dark and bright enough to see, sorted by when each is best placed, with finder charts, a CSV export and a printable list.

Search

  • An object id (ZTF26abvkmbu, a Rubin id, or the first few characters), a TNS name (SN 2026abc), coordinates (35.71 -4.75 or 02:22:50 -04:45:00, add r=10' for a radius), a deep-drilling field (COSMOS), a class (SN Ia, EclBin) or any name astronomers use (M31).

On the map: zoom to go deeper

  • Whole sky (wider than 20°): a heatmap of how many objects were seen in each patch of sky.
  • Region (1°–20°): a finer heatmap plus numbered badges. The number is the count of objects, the color is their most common class, and a white ring means something new in the last night.
  • Objects (under 1°): one dot per object. A white ring means it was seen last night, and a white center means it has been detected only once so far. Click a dot for its light curve, classification and images.

Drag to pan, scroll or pinch to zoom, or click a badge to zoom into it.

Filters

  • Window: how far back to look, from last night to a year.
  • Active / new: objects detected in the window, or only those first seen in it.
  • Class: most alerts are solar-system objects (asteroids). Pick Non-Solar System to hide them and see what else is out there.
  • Brightness (≤ 20, ≤ 18, ≤ 16): only objects at least that bright. Smaller magnitudes are brighter. An object marked faded was last seen fainter than in the survey's reference image, so it has no brightness of its own and counts only under any mag.
  • History (2+ nights, …): only objects seen on several nights, which filters out one-off artifacts.

Observing from your site

  • Your site: an observatory from the list, or your latitude and longitude (typed, or Use my location). A position is rounded to half a degree, and the site is remembered in this browser only.
  • Object panel: when the object is up tonight, its altitude through the night with the moon, the next 60 nights, and a Finder chart with a link to AAVSO's comparison stars.
  • Objects: Visible from… keeps what is above your limit in tonight's dark window, with when and how high.
  • Sky: Observer… shades what is below your horizon at a time you pick; the counts do not change.

Dark means the sun more than 12° below the horizon (18° if you choose). Positions ignore refraction and precession, a few tenths of a degree: enough to plan, not to point.

Classes

  • SN candidate
  • AGN / nuclear
  • Variable star
  • Solar system
  • Cataloged
  • Unknown
  • Low reliability
  • Other

The data is refreshed nightly. Every view is a link: on the map the URL records the position, zoom, filters and selected object, so Copy link shares exactly what you see.

Made by jgriz

Objects

Objects
Survey
Bucket
Clear
451–500 of 255,900 · All objects seen in the 7 nights
ObjectClassLast magPeakFirst seenLast seenNightsAlertsRel.RA, DecPartner
ZTF ZTF26abxsxtr Solar System MPC17.11 r17.112026-09-262026-09-26111.00146.2025, 10.4828
ZTF ZTF26abxsxts Solar System MPC18.34 r18.342026-09-262026-09-26111.00146.2249, 10.3160
ZTF ZTF26abxsxtt Solar System MPC18.92 r18.922026-09-262026-09-26110.99146.2139, 10.6462
ZTF ZTF26abxsxxf Solar System MPC18.76 r18.762026-09-262026-09-26111.00142.8069, 11.5964
ZTF ZTF26abxsxxh Solar System MPC18.80 r18.802026-09-262026-09-26111.00142.5539, 10.9653
ZTF ZTF26abxsxxi Solar System MPC18.89 r18.892026-09-262026-09-26111.00142.9451, 11.5272
ZTF ZTF26abxsxzn Solar System MPC17.31 r17.312026-09-262026-09-26111.00142.2423, 10.7771
ZTF ZTF26abxsyeb Unknown15.45 r15.452026-09-262026-09-26111.00139.5320, 9.6426
ZTF ZTF26abxsyej Solar System candidate15.64 r15.642026-09-262026-09-26111.00139.6324, 9.6264
ZTF ZTF26abxsyek Solar System candidate15.67 r15.672026-09-262026-09-26111.00139.5593, 9.6384
ZTF ZTF26abxsyen Unknown15.83 r15.832026-09-262026-09-26111.00139.5228, 9.6442
ZTF ZTF26abxsyeo Solar System MPC16.45 r16.452026-09-262026-09-26111.00139.6504, 9.3722
ZTF ZTF26abxsygb Solar System MPC18.67 r18.672026-09-262026-09-26111.00139.8420, 11.4738
ZTF ZTF26abxsygd Solar System MPC19.01 r19.012026-09-262026-09-26111.00139.7403, 10.8578
ZTF ZTF26abxsyhu Solar System MPC16.30 r16.302026-09-262026-09-26111.00139.5404, 14.3483
ZTF ZTF26abxsyhv Solar System MPC18.53 r18.532026-09-262026-09-26111.00139.5096, 13.9747
ZTF ZTF26abxsyhw Solar System MPC18.51 r18.512026-09-262026-09-26111.00140.0209, 14.2871
ZTF ZTF26abxsyhy Solar System MPC18.99 r18.992026-09-262026-09-26111.00139.7861, 13.9290
ZTF ZTF26abxsyib Solar System MPC18.70 r18.702026-09-262026-09-26111.00139.7268, 10.4785
ZTF ZTF17aaaizsr RRLyraefaded r17.632017-12-142026-09-26882261.00141.3372, 19.4934
ZTF ZTF17aaajael RRLyraefaded r16.822017-12-142026-09-26701151.00142.6294, 19.9695
ZTF ZTF17aaantax RRLyraefaded r17.132017-12-152026-09-2639491.00142.2186, 18.0469
ZTF ZTF17aaantnh RRLyraefaded r16.032017-12-142026-09-2644661.00142.6519, 18.8143
ZTF ZTF17aabonlu RRLyrae18.55 r17.752017-12-142026-09-2647671.00143.2900, 19.9826
ZTF ZTF18aaahseo Unknownfaded r—2018-01-132026-09-26110.72148.4590, 18.3177
ZTF ZTF18aabkfps EclBinfaded r—2017-12-152026-09-26441.00142.0685, 17.4073
ZTF ZTF18aabkfzm RRLyraefaded r17.072018-01-132026-09-2627321.00147.7819, 18.0245
ZTF ZTF18aabpvtb EclBinfaded r18.112018-02-072026-09-2615171.00147.6311, 18.3908
ZTF ZTF18aahqxex Seyfert1faded r19.202018-03-072026-09-2657901.00143.5198, 19.9382
ZTF ZTF18aalnhdr Unknown18.88 r18.462018-04-192026-09-2613131.00145.7548, 18.0654
ZTF ZTF18accnmpa QSOfaded r—2018-11-032026-09-26781191.00147.5120, 18.8350
ZTF ZTF18acefikw Unknownfaded r—2018-11-062026-09-26221.00144.6553, 20.2409
ZTF ZTF18acefmhl Unknownfaded r—2018-11-122026-09-2631351.00148.1441, 16.4814
ZTF ZTF18acgvmee Unknownfaded r18.132018-11-092026-09-2629381.00144.4420, 19.1536
ZTF ZTF18acgvmmn Unknownfaded r—2018-02-242026-09-2618211.00144.1856, 17.4689
ZTF ZTF18adazgmy Variable*faded r—2018-12-282026-09-2616181.00146.2728, 16.2811
ZTF ZTF18admhdlm QSOfaded r18.382018-05-242026-09-26601031.00143.5457, 18.1116
ZTF ZTF19aaitwco Unknownfaded r19.152019-02-092026-09-2610111.00144.6051, 19.6219
ZTF ZTF19aajehcj QSO18.49 r18.302018-12-192026-09-26551011.00142.8893, 17.3469
ZTF ZTF19aaysifx QSOfaded r18.972018-11-062026-09-2627391.00143.3122, 21.8579
ZTF ZTF19acducjw QSOfaded r18.722019-01-082026-09-26801411.00144.6421, 19.3854
ZTF ZTF20aadxndb Unknownfaded r—2019-04-072026-09-2653921.00142.6279, 18.5749
ZTF ZTF20aahfvtv Unknownfaded r—2018-11-032026-09-2620261.00141.8966, 17.2307
ZTF ZTF20acxyejt Unknownfaded r—2018-02-242026-09-26460.99141.8858, 17.2096
ZTF ZTF21aackafx QSO18.83 r18.442019-04-122026-09-26841521.00148.1978, 15.8894
ZTF ZTF23abnxbai EclBinfaded r—2018-01-112026-09-2610121.00142.2051, 15.5449
ZTF ZTF23absdkcg Unknownfaded r17.532018-11-122026-09-2631411.00142.2629, 20.1752
ZTF ZTF24aaicyuu Solar System MPC18.42 r18.422024-04-032026-09-26111.00143.9893, 18.3872
ZTF ZTF24abinbkv Unknown18.90 r18.642019-01-302026-09-26441.00141.8631, 17.6127
ZTF ZTF26abxswqx Solar System MPC13.47 r13.472026-09-262026-09-26111.00143.7881, 16.0930