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
501–550 of 255,900 · All objects seen in the 7 nights
ObjectClassLast magPeakFirst seenLast seenNightsAlertsRel.RA, DecPartner
ZTF ZTF26abxswqy Solar System MPC14.74 r14.742026-09-262026-09-26111.00143.9565, 16.3093
ZTF ZTF26abxswqz Solar System MPC17.82 r17.822026-09-262026-09-26111.00143.5638, 16.9143
ZTF ZTF26abxswsf Solar System MPC18.86 r18.862026-09-262026-09-26110.99145.8067, 16.6179
ZTF ZTF26abxswsg Solar System MPC18.70 r18.702026-09-262026-09-26111.00145.9343, 16.6837
ZTF ZTF26abxswst Solar System MPC18.07 r18.072026-09-262026-09-26111.00144.6373, 16.4574
ZTF ZTF26abxswsu Solar System MPC18.26 r18.262026-09-262026-09-26111.00144.6792, 16.5527
ZTF ZTF26abxswsv Solar System MPC18.13 r18.132026-09-262026-09-26111.00144.3902, 16.5627
ZTF ZTF26abxswsx Solar System MPC18.36 r18.362026-09-262026-09-26111.00146.5645, 16.7487
ZTF ZTF26abxswsy Solar System MPC18.38 r18.382026-09-262026-09-26111.00146.4666, 16.2646
ZTF ZTF26abxswsz Solar System MPC18.20 r18.202026-09-262026-09-26111.00146.5162, 16.8676
ZTF ZTF26abxswtb Solar System MPC18.59 r18.592026-09-262026-09-26111.00147.6847, 15.6306
ZTF ZTF26abxswtc Solar System MPC18.45 r18.452026-09-262026-09-26111.00147.5908, 15.4803
ZTF ZTF26abxswte Solar System MPC18.58 r18.582026-09-262026-09-26110.98147.4320, 15.4580
ZTF ZTF26abxswtx Solar System MPC17.71 r17.712026-09-262026-09-26111.00142.6296, 16.3361
ZTF ZTF26abxswty Solar System MPC18.44 r18.442026-09-262026-09-26111.00142.5588, 16.3430
ZTF ZTF26abxswue Solar System MPC18.82 r18.822026-09-262026-09-26111.00145.5829, 15.2612
ZTF ZTF26abxswuf Solar System MPC18.44 r18.442026-09-262026-09-26111.00145.3378, 15.3282
ZTF ZTF26abxswux Solar System MPC17.72 r17.722026-09-262026-09-26111.00143.6905, 15.9288
ZTF ZTF26abxswzh Solar System MPC18.61 r18.612026-09-262026-09-26110.99142.6132, 15.5036
ZTF ZTF26abxswzi Solar System MPC19.02 r19.022026-09-262026-09-26110.99142.2747, 15.5169
ZTF ZTF26abxsxau Solar System MPC17.69 r17.692026-09-262026-09-26111.00142.8228, 19.7517
ZTF ZTF26abxsxav Solar System MPC19.00 r19.002026-09-262026-09-26111.00142.8046, 19.2881
ZTF ZTF26abxsxbe Solar System MPC17.94 r17.942021-04-122026-09-26111.00142.1287, 20.9654
ZTF ZTF26abxsxbh Solar System MPC19.09 r19.092026-09-262026-09-26111.00142.1964, 21.6072
ZTF ZTF26abxsxcf Solar System MPC16.90 r16.902026-09-262026-09-26111.00145.2245, 17.8211
ZTF ZTF26abxsxcu Solar System MPC18.25 r18.252026-09-262026-09-26111.00148.5055, 15.3645
ZTF ZTF26abxsxcw Solar System MPC16.06 r16.062020-10-092026-09-26111.00146.6398, 15.4237
ZTF ZTF26abxsxcy Solar System MPC18.91 r18.912026-09-262026-09-26111.00146.4926, 15.8082
ZTF ZTF26abxsxdy Solar System MPC13.30 r13.302026-09-262026-09-26111.00141.7458, 19.0566
ZTF ZTF26abxsxea Solar System MPC17.91 r17.912026-09-262026-09-26111.00141.5879, 19.0584
ZTF ZTF26abxsxeb Solar System MPC18.55 r18.552026-09-262026-09-26111.00141.2654, 19.3331
ZTF ZTF26abxsxec Solar System MPC18.87 r18.872026-09-262026-09-26110.97141.6604, 19.2074
ZTF ZTF26abxsxeo Solar System MPC18.35 r18.352019-09-252026-09-26111.00141.5368, 22.4950
ZTF ZTF26abxsxep Solar System MPC18.89 r18.892026-09-262026-09-26111.00141.5885, 21.9896
ZTF ZTF26abxsxhh Solar System MPC18.92 r18.922026-09-262026-09-26111.00145.6412, 18.3413
ZTF ZTF26abxsxhi Solar System MPC17.26 r17.262026-09-262026-09-26111.00143.5790, 20.6392
ZTF ZTF26abxsxhj Solar System MPC18.48 r18.482026-09-262026-09-26111.00143.1880, 20.2201
ZTF ZTF26abxsxhk Solar System MPC18.59 r18.592026-09-262026-09-26111.00143.2304, 20.2055
ZTF ZTF26abxsxig Solar System MPC17.34 r17.342026-09-262026-09-26111.00143.6962, 21.0455
ZTF ZTF26abxsxiy Solar System MPC17.58 r17.582026-09-262026-09-26111.00142.1282, 16.2241
ZTF ZTF26abxsxkn Solar System MPC16.85 r16.852026-09-262026-09-26111.00144.4535, 19.7533
ZTF ZTF26abxsxkr Solar System MPC18.82 r18.822026-09-262026-09-26111.00144.6358, 19.8650
ZTF ZTF26abxsxks Solar System MPC18.14 r18.142019-02-102026-09-26111.00148.7026, 16.7785
ZTF ZTF26abxsxkz Solar System MPC18.10 r18.102026-09-262026-09-26111.00146.5830, 18.7118
ZTF ZTF26abxsxla Solar System MPC19.10 r19.102026-09-262026-09-26110.99144.8436, 20.5686
ZTF ZTF26abxsxmm Solar System MPC18.96 r18.962026-09-262026-09-26111.00148.7285, 18.1661
ZTF ZTF26abxsxmn Solar System MPC18.75 r18.752026-09-262026-09-26111.00148.1852, 18.7669
ZTF ZTF26abxsxmw Solar System MPC17.56 r17.562022-11-182026-09-26111.00141.5702, 19.9686
ZTF ZTF26abxsxmy Solar System MPC18.52 r18.522026-09-262026-09-26111.00142.0284, 20.6091
ZTF ZTF26abxsxmz Solar System MPC18.83 r18.832026-09-262026-09-26110.99142.0689, 20.6881