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
1,151–1,200 of 255,900 · All objects seen in the 7 nights
ObjectClassLast magPeakFirst seenLast seenNightsAlertsRel.RA, DecPartner
ZTF ZTF26abxsvly Solar System MPC18.54 r18.542026-09-262026-09-26110.84132.6918, 23.5999
ZTF ZTF26abxsvmm Solar System MPC19.32 r19.322026-09-262026-09-26111.00131.0519, 24.2341
ZTF ZTF26abxsvnh Solar System MPC17.65 r17.652026-09-262026-09-26111.00133.3304, 26.2610
ZTF ZTF26abxsvni Solar System MPC18.92 r18.922026-09-262026-09-26111.00132.9957, 25.6835
ZTF ZTF26abxsvnj Solar System MPC15.42 r15.422026-09-262026-09-26111.00130.8076, 26.1744
ZTF ZTF26abxsvpf Solar System MPC16.08 r16.082026-09-262026-09-26111.00132.6222, 19.0159
ZTF ZTF26abxsvpk Solar System MPC18.77 r18.772026-09-262026-09-26111.00132.4915, 19.3130
ZTF ZTF26abxsvpm Solar System MPC18.90 r18.902026-09-262026-09-26111.00132.0709, 19.4884
ZTF ZTF26abxsvpn Solar System MPC19.27 r19.272026-09-262026-09-26111.00131.9332, 19.5620
ZTF ZTF26abxsvpp Solar System MPC19.19 r19.192026-09-262026-09-26111.00137.3795, 19.8365
ZTF ZTF26abxsvqr Solar System MPC16.52 r16.522026-09-262026-09-26111.00130.2827, 25.9450
ZTF ZTF26abxsvqx Solar System MPC14.01 r14.012026-09-262026-09-26111.00134.2834, 19.2252
ZTF ZTF26abxsvqy Solar System MPC18.53 r18.532026-09-262026-09-26111.00134.4797, 19.2732
ZTF ZTF26abxsvqz Solar System MPC18.36 r18.362026-09-262026-09-26111.00134.5884, 19.6589
ZTF ZTF26abxsvre Solar System MPC17.38 r17.382026-09-262026-09-26111.00135.5848, 18.8986
ZTF ZTF26abxsvrg Solar System MPC18.91 r18.912026-09-262026-09-26111.00135.4832, 19.3186
ZTF ZTF26abxsvrh Solar System MPC19.04 r19.042026-09-262026-09-26111.00135.1950, 19.3319
ZTF ZTF26abxsvrl Solar System MPC16.46 r16.462026-09-262026-09-26111.00133.1932, 19.4623
ZTF ZTF26abxsvrn Solar System MPC19.37 r19.372026-09-262026-09-26111.00132.7785, 19.5944
ZTF ZTF26abxsvro Solar System MPC19.28 r19.282026-09-262026-09-26111.00132.9259, 19.0921
ZTF ZTF26abxsvtb Solar System MPC12.87 r12.872026-09-262026-09-26111.00132.3562, 23.3511
ZTF ZTF26abxsvtd Solar System MPC18.97 r18.972026-09-262026-09-26111.00132.4664, 23.1366
ZTF ZTF26abxsvte Solar System MPC19.29 r19.292026-09-262026-09-26111.00132.4443, 23.1754
ZTF ZTF26abxsvti Solar System MPC17.74 r17.742026-09-262026-09-26111.00136.6372, 19.0767
ZTF ZTF26abxsvtj Solar System MPC18.00 r18.002026-09-262026-09-26111.00136.5365, 19.1788
ZTF ZTF26abxsvtl Solar System MPC18.22 r18.222026-09-262026-09-26111.00136.0183, 19.4641
ZTF ZTF26abxsvtm Solar System MPC19.11 r19.112026-09-262026-09-26111.00136.2252, 19.3287
ZTF ZTF26abxsvug Solar System MPC17.51 r17.512026-09-262026-09-26111.00132.8394, 23.7916
ZTF ZTF26abxsvuh Solar System MPC17.66 r17.662026-09-262026-09-26111.00133.3634, 24.2522
ZTF ZTF26abxsvui Solar System MPC18.15 r18.152026-09-042026-09-26111.00133.0890, 23.5677
ZTF ZTF26abxsvuj Solar System MPC18.84 r18.842026-09-262026-09-26111.00132.8179, 23.8434
ZTF ZTF26abxsvzf Solar System MPC18.66 r18.662026-09-262026-09-26111.00136.9195, 21.0239
ZTF ZTF26abxsvzg Solar System MPC18.98 r18.982026-09-262026-09-26111.00136.9034, 21.4514
ZTF ZTF26abxsvzw Solar System MPC18.13 r18.132026-09-262026-09-26111.00137.1225, 21.6848
ZTF ZTF26abxswcy Solar System MPC19.01 r19.012026-09-262026-09-26111.00130.1357, 20.2489
ZTF ZTF26abxswdb Solar System MPC19.23 r19.232026-09-262026-09-26110.99130.1580, 19.8520
ZTF ZTF26abxswdf Solar System MPC17.93 r17.932026-09-262026-09-26111.00131.3534, 19.6123
ZTF ZTF26abxswdg Solar System MPC18.77 r18.772026-09-262026-09-26111.00130.8326, 19.3112
ZTF ZTF26abxswdh Solar System MPC18.81 r18.812026-09-262026-09-26110.99131.0258, 19.0135
ZTF ZTF26abxswdk Solar System MPC18.99 r18.992026-09-262026-09-26111.00131.4729, 19.0554
ZTF ZTF26abxswdm Solar System MPC19.03 r19.032026-09-262026-09-26111.00133.3801, 25.1068
ZTF ZTF26abxswdn Solar System MPC19.36 r19.362026-09-262026-09-26110.99133.5914, 24.9775
ZTF ZTF26abxswdo Solar System MPC19.28 r19.282026-09-262026-09-26111.00133.3086, 25.0507
ZTF ZTF26abxswfg Solar System MPC17.30 r17.302026-09-262026-09-26111.00129.9984, 19.1535
ZTF ZTF26abxswfi Solar System MPC18.91 r18.912026-09-262026-09-26111.00130.1502, 19.2053
ZTF ZTF26abxswfj Solar System MPC19.20 r19.202026-09-262026-09-26111.00130.3762, 18.8047
ZTF ZTF26abxswfk Solar System MPC18.82 r18.822026-09-262026-09-26111.00130.4428, 19.5665
ZTF ZTF26abxswfm Solar System MPC19.09 r19.092019-01-102026-09-26111.00130.5989, 19.6029
ZTF ZTF26abxswgb Solar System MPC19.09 r19.092026-09-262026-09-26111.00133.8782, 22.0300
ZTF ZTF26abxswhg Solar System MPC17.55 r17.552026-09-262026-09-26111.00134.5982, 21.0687