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
701–750 of 255,900 · All objects seen in the 7 nights
ObjectClassLast magPeakFirst seenLast seenNightsAlertsRel.RA, DecPartner
ZTF ZTF26abxswgz Solar System MPC18.96 r18.962026-09-262026-09-26111.00152.6992, 18.6918
ZTF ZTF26abxswhr Solar System MPC18.77 r18.772026-09-262026-09-26111.00151.0399, 16.2858
ZTF ZTF26abxswht Solar System MPC16.02 r16.022026-09-262026-09-26111.00148.7455, 19.4726
ZTF ZTF26abxswip Solar System MPC19.00 r19.002026-09-262026-09-26111.00151.3401, 16.2379
ZTF ZTF26abxswqr Solar System MPC15.61 r15.612026-09-262026-09-26111.00150.0405, 15.5074
ZTF ZTF26abxswqs Solar System MPC19.09 r19.092026-09-262026-09-26111.00149.5288, 15.9702
ZTF ZTF26abxswrc Solar System MPC18.33 r18.332026-09-262026-09-26111.00148.8158, 21.4388
ZTF ZTF26abxswuu Solar System MPC17.76 r17.762026-09-262026-09-26111.00151.8639, 17.1761
ZTF ZTF26abxswvb Solar System MPC18.50 r18.502026-09-262026-09-26111.00151.1052, 17.2953
ZTF ZTF26abxswxb Solar System MPC18.58 r18.582021-09-212026-09-26111.00148.7692, 16.7764
ZTF ZTF26abxswyw Solar System MPC14.70 r14.702026-09-262026-09-26111.00150.9750, 18.1230
ZTF ZTF26abxswyz Solar System MPC18.50 r18.502026-09-262026-09-26111.00150.8586, 18.7644
ZTF ZTF26abxsxbj Solar System MPC17.78 r17.782026-09-262026-09-26111.00148.6656, 20.2627
ZTF ZTF26abxsxqt Solar System MPC18.10 r18.102026-09-262026-09-26111.00151.3941, 18.8356
ZTF ZTF26abxsxsu Solar System MPC17.85 r17.852026-09-262026-09-26111.00148.6707, 17.4410
ZTF ZTF26abxsxsv Solar System MPC18.47 r18.472026-09-262026-09-26110.99148.8887, 17.9458
ZTF ZTF17aaaizfy RRLyraefaded r16.132017-12-142026-09-26832111.00140.7815, 7.1086
ZTF ZTF18aaacjbt RRLyraefaded r16.972017-12-152026-09-2647611.00142.0007, 6.6330
ZTF ZTF18aaacopb EclBinfaded r15.472018-01-112026-09-2637471.00141.3970, 8.0087
ZTF ZTF18aaaczgc RRLyrae17.88 r17.222017-12-152026-09-2654941.00143.2622, 8.1372
ZTF ZTF18aabjisy RRLyrae18.57 r17.852017-12-142026-09-2646711.00145.1345, 2.1699
ZTF ZTF18aabjizi Unknown16.41 r16.322018-01-132026-09-2610121.00143.0448, 8.1056
ZTF ZTF18aabkecw Unknown18.50 r17.222018-01-112026-09-2649711.00147.1085, 2.4833
ZTF ZTF18aczejpi RSCVnV*faded r—2018-11-172026-09-2632461.00141.2346, 6.1403
ZTF ZTF18adazick EclBin17.86 r17.522018-01-112026-09-2639451.00143.4917, 7.9998
ZTF ZTF18adbhpjl EclBinfaded r—2018-11-072026-09-2625301.00141.2522, 3.1151
ZTF ZTF19aaiuogp QSO18.37 r18.352018-11-172026-09-26731191.00145.1789, 2.2660
ZTF ZTF19aajfdud Unknown18.57 r18.362019-01-302026-09-2660851.00144.7887, 2.3382
ZTF ZTF19aajgosi Unknownfaded r—2019-02-092026-09-26110.11144.8867, 2.8835
ZTF ZTF19aatjhsl QSOfaded r18.722018-11-202026-09-26922511.00140.9498, 5.7127
ZTF ZTF20aaawbjn QSO18.79 r18.502019-01-102026-09-26761371.00143.2366, 7.7035
ZTF ZTF20aahozch Unknownfaded r—2019-02-122026-09-26111.00144.8621, 2.9554
ZTF ZTF26abxswbq Solar System MPC18.17 r18.172026-09-262026-09-26111.00142.3146, 8.0262
ZTF ZTF26abxswjs Solar System MPC18.17 r18.172026-09-262026-09-26111.00144.0609, 1.3648
ZTF ZTF26abxswld Solar System MPC16.70 r16.702026-09-262026-09-26111.00142.3575, 6.6572
ZTF ZTF26abxswle Solar System MPC17.56 r17.562026-09-262026-09-26111.00142.4060, 7.2321
ZTF ZTF26abxswve Solar System MPC17.16 r17.162026-09-262026-09-26111.00145.5477, 3.3764
ZTF ZTF26abxswvf Solar System MPC18.21 r18.212026-09-262026-09-26111.00145.4841, 3.0788
ZTF ZTF26abxswvg Solar System MPC16.71 r16.712026-09-262026-09-26111.00141.2212, 6.0267
ZTF ZTF26abxswvh Solar System MPC17.15 r17.152026-09-262026-09-26111.00140.7662, 6.0754
ZTF ZTF26abxswvj Solar System MPC18.87 r18.872026-09-262026-09-26110.75141.5423, 5.8152
ZTF ZTF26abxsxol Solar System MPC17.46 r17.462026-09-262026-09-26111.00147.3100, 3.1957
ZTF ZTF26abxsxwo Solar System MPC18.40 r18.402026-09-262026-09-26111.00141.0431, 2.8672
ZTF ZTF26abxsycg Tracklet17.11 r17.112026-09-262026-09-26110.02144.5312, 3.3981
ZTF ZTF26abxsyci Tracklet17.23 r17.232026-09-262026-09-26110.09144.5564, 3.3925
ZTF ZTF26abxsyck Tracklet17.22 r17.222026-09-262026-09-26110.02144.5481, 3.3944
ZTF ZTF26abxsycl Tracklet17.11 r17.112026-09-262026-09-26110.30144.6071, 3.3811
ZTF ZTF26abxsycm Tracklet17.29 r17.292026-09-262026-09-26110.26144.5735, 3.3884
ZTF ZTF26abxsycn Tracklet17.14 r17.142026-09-262026-09-26110.02144.5904, 3.3850
ZTF ZTF26abxsyco Tracklet17.17 r17.172026-09-262026-09-26110.14144.6243, 3.3771