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. Transients the two surveys miss, reported by others to the Transient Name Server, are here too.

Sources

  • ZTF and Rubin: objects the surveys alerted on. Each detection is an alert, with the broker's classification, a reliability score and three image cutouts.
  • TNS: transients reported to the Transient Name Server that neither survey alerted on, among them nearly every bright one south of −30°, which ZTF cannot see. Each detection is a report: the magnitudes reported to TNS (the discovery, and any later ones), each in its reporter's filter, then ATLAS's measurements (c and o bands) for two months while it is brighter than 19. Reported by names the surveys (ATLAS, GOTO, Pan-STARRS, …). When ZTF or Rubin later alerts on one, it becomes their object.
  • CBAT: reports on the Central Bureau's Transient Object Confirmation Page that neither the surveys nor TNS have, mostly bright Galactic novae (PNV J…) and dwarf novae in outburst (TCP J…). An object that matches a TOCP entry shows its designation.
  • A TNS type (SN Ia, Nova, AGN, …) decides an object's class whoever saw it; without one, the broker's label does.
  • An object is active while it has detections in the window. A TNS or CBAT object ATLAS does not measure (fainter than 19, older than two months, or not yet measured) is active only while the window holds its last report, so it leaves the short windows a week later.

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.
  • More filters (Objects only): discovered within some nights, a redshift ceiling, a declination band, a faint limit past your saturation, one-night objects, rising ones, a reporting survey, or those an AAVSO campaign asks for. A view can be named, and its Subscribe panel gives it as a feed, as JSON and as targets for a TOM.

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.
  • Tonight: Subscribe gives an RSS feed of your setup, one item a night with the picks, once the data through the night before are in (or three hours before dark). A condition (novae, rare types, something brighter than a magnitude) leaves nights without a match out, so a feed-to-email service mails only those. The plan is also JSON, for scripts and robotic telescopes. A feed's address holds your rounded site and setup: a reader or email service you give it to keeps it.
  • Where your data count: the surveys measure their own objects every few nights, but a TNS or CBAT object gets only ATLAS's photometry, and only while it is brighter than 19. Unconfirmed marks one reported on a single night in the last two weeks: a detection confirms it, and a deep non-detection is news too. No recent data marks one seen on two or more nights that nothing has measured for four nights or more: a magnitude fills the gap in its light curve. Requested marks one an AAVSO observing campaign asks observers to measure; Campaigns tonight lists the other campaign stars that are up.
  • Report an observation (object panel): where your photometry and spectra go (AAVSO for stars and novae, TNS for supernovae, CBAT for an unconfirmed TOCP entry), the name to file them under from AAVSO's VSX, and an AAVSO file formatted from what you type. Nothing is sent from the site; your observer code stays in this browser.

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

Data credits

Fink: ZTF and Rubin alerts: classifications, light curves, limits and cutouts
Möller et al. 2021, MNRAS 501, 3272.
Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF): the ZTF public alert stream, through Fink
Based on observations obtained with the Samuel Oschin Telescope 48-inch and the 60-inch Telescope at the Palomar Observatory as part of the Zwicky Transient Facility project; Bellm et al. 2019, PASP 131, 018002.
Vera C. Rubin Observatory: the Rubin LSST alert stream and forced photometry, through Fink
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time; Ivezić et al. 2019, ApJ 873, 111.
Transient Name Server (TNS): names, types and discovery reports of transients from every survey
The IAU Transient Name Server, operated by the Weizmann Institute of Science; reports by the surveys named on each object.
CBAT: the Transient Object Confirmation Page: bright novae and other transients reported to the Central Bureau
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, Transient Object Confirmation Page (TOCP).
ATLAS: forced photometry of TNS objects, from the ATLAS forced-photometry server
Tonry et al. 2018, PASP 130, 064505; Smith et al. 2020, PASP 132, 085002; Shingles et al. 2021, TNS AstroNote 2021-7.
AAVSO: observing campaigns that ask for observations, and VSX's names for the report helper
We acknowledge with thanks the observing campaigns of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), and the International Variable Star Index (VSX).
CDS, Strasbourg: sky imagery (HiPS), finder charts (hips2fits) and name resolution (Sesame)
This research has made use of the CDS services, Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory, France.

Everything here is also JSON: Data and API has the public API, the feeds, the exports and how to cite the data.

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
Source
Bucket
More filters
Clear
2,801–2,850 of 212,889 · All objects seen in the 7 nights
ObjectClassLast magRisePeakFirst seenLast seenNightsDetectionsRel.RA, DecPartner
ZTF ZTF18abusyiu LongPeriodV*_Candidate15.19 r+0.114.932018-09-102026-09-3016231.00302.6735, -15.8606
ZTF ZTF18abusyqr EclBinfaded r−0.117.692018-05-252026-09-30560.97304.1342, -17.4861
ZTF ZTF18abusyrc Unknown16.90 r+0.216.782018-09-102026-09-30731051.00304.3924, -17.2024
ZTF ZTF18abusyvd RRLyrae18.70 r+0.318.372018-09-102026-09-3028311.00303.9542, -19.6003Rubin
ZTF ZTF18abusyve RRLyrae19.22 r+0.418.262018-05-252026-09-3032401.00303.4932, -19.6901Rubin
ZTF ZTF18abusyvx RRLyraefaded r−0.317.722018-05-252026-09-30881281.00305.4488, -19.1814Rubin
ZTF ZTF18abusyws Star17.33 r+0.117.332018-09-102026-09-309101.00307.3648, -18.0362
ZTF ZTF18abusyxz RRLyraefaded r−0.315.632018-05-252026-09-30751101.00304.5726, -19.7792
ZTF ZTF18abusyya RRLyraefaded r−0.116.302018-05-252026-09-3052641.00304.2309, -19.4928
ZTF ZTF18abusyyb EclBinfaded r−0.116.362018-05-252026-09-3044541.00304.0317, -19.3978
ZTF ZTF18abusyye LongPeriodV*faded r−0.115.742018-09-102026-09-3030471.00304.2045, -19.6171
ZTF ZTF18abuszav Variable*faded r−0.117.242018-05-252026-09-3029351.00302.0674, -19.3784
ZTF ZTF18abuszet EclBin16.27 r+0.316.122018-05-252026-09-3073971.00303.7957, -16.5711
ZTF ZTF18abuszhu Unknown15.04 r+0.314.842018-09-102026-09-30911301.00304.0382, -16.2773
ZTF ZTF18abuszhy EclBinfaded r−0.217.192018-09-102026-09-3030361.00304.3054, -16.7491Rubin
ZTF ZTF18abuszix RRLyrae18.65 r+0.118.112018-05-252026-09-3065851.00306.4129, -20.4437
ZTF ZTF18abusziy RRLyraefaded r−0.316.912018-09-102026-09-30691041.00306.6813, -20.1805
ZTF ZTF18abuszjj ClassicalCep15.14 r+0.113.872018-05-252026-09-3059761.00302.2777, -18.2682
ZTF ZTF18abuszjp EclBin17.59 r+0.117.592018-09-102026-09-3011121.00302.2932, -18.5133
ZTF ZTF18abuszky RSCVnV*16.37 r+0.316.112018-05-252026-09-30992421.00308.3148, -17.6654
ZTF ZTF18abuszpr LongPeriodV*faded r−0.214.862018-09-102026-09-30951541.00305.1200, -17.3407
ZTF ZTF18abuszrv EclBinfaded r−0.318.002018-05-252026-09-3046561.00303.8570, -18.5891Rubin
ZTF ZTF18abusztj RRLyraefaded r−0.117.592018-05-252026-09-30821121.00305.4999, -20.0745Rubin
ZTF ZTF18abuszum AGB*16.44 r+0.114.792018-05-252026-09-30951481.00305.8194, -18.0718
ZTF ZTF18abutaar RRLyrae17.27 r+0.216.532018-05-252026-09-30811251.00304.6041, -15.2962
ZTF ZTF18abutaau Unknown16.33 r+0.115.542018-08-012026-09-3060811.00304.6205, -15.3667
ZTF ZTF18abutaay RRLyrae_Candidatefaded r−0.217.632018-05-252026-09-30881131.00304.4415, -15.8239
ZTF ZTF18abutaaz RRLyrae18.74 r+0.117.612018-05-252026-09-3066761.00304.7473, -15.9370
ZTF ZTF18abutabn EclBin17.30 r+0.117.302018-09-102026-09-3027311.00306.2023, -18.3860
ZTF ZTF18abutaks RRLyraefaded r−0.216.632018-05-252026-09-30951421.00306.7237, -17.4875Rubin
ZTF ZTF18abutpsu RSCVnV*faded r−0.217.662018-07-032026-09-30711001.00308.4845, -20.7274
ZTF ZTF18abutqmm EclBinfaded r−0.517.742018-05-252026-09-3017211.00301.6722, -13.5843Rubin
ZTF ZTF18abutqwk Unknown17.82 r+0.117.352018-05-242026-09-301012031.00301.3272, -14.5244
ZTF ZTF18abvnbze EclBin17.42 r+0.317.422018-09-132026-09-3033361.00303.8343, -19.2954
ZTF ZTF18abvphya EclBin18.80 r+0.218.802018-09-132026-09-3040461.00306.8015, -19.8476
ZTF ZTF18abvpjdl RRLyraefaded r−0.115.772018-09-132026-09-3048561.00301.9379, -20.0955
ZTF ZTF18abvpjdp Variable*17.15 r+0.116.982018-09-132026-09-3048561.00301.4965, -20.3506
ZTF ZTF18abvpjio LongPeriodV*_Candidatefaded r−0.214.132018-05-252026-09-3057981.00302.4212, -20.1616
ZTF ZTF18abvpjuf RRLyraefaded r−0.116.852018-05-252026-09-30761291.00308.4088, -20.2388
ZTF ZTF18abvpjug RRLyraefaded r−0.216.752018-05-252026-09-301132561.00308.2966, -20.0430Rubin
ZTF ZTF18abvpkel Unknownfaded r−0.115.722018-09-042026-09-3044681.00304.2385, -14.3394
ZTF ZTF18abvpkrm Unknownfaded r−0.214.612018-09-132026-09-30941521.00306.3916, -20.2329
ZTF ZTF18abvpkrp EclBinfaded r−0.117.662018-09-132026-09-3062741.00306.7833, -20.4106
ZTF ZTF18abvpkrr Unknown18.04 r+0.117.902018-09-132026-09-3038611.00306.5178, -20.7128
ZTF ZTF18abvpldg RRLyrae18.13 r+0.117.292018-05-252026-09-3066771.00304.4114, -20.2633Rubin
ZTF ZTF18abvpldh Unknownfaded r−0.115.782018-05-252026-09-3043701.00304.2166, -20.0256
ZTF ZTF18abvploj Variable*faded r−0.113.952018-05-252026-09-30771681.00308.2947, -18.1793
ZTF ZTF18abvpnji LongPeriodV*_Candidatefaded r−0.115.732018-09-132026-09-30781991.00301.3487, -16.0929
ZTF ZTF18abvpnpc Unknownfaded r−0.217.832018-09-132026-09-3043731.00302.2175, -16.3134
ZTF ZTF18abwmwmj Unknown14.74 r+0.114.152018-05-252026-09-3015181.00305.4999, -17.4121