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
1,351–1,400 of 255,900 · All objects seen in the 7 nights
ObjectClassLast magPeakFirst seenLast seenNightsAlertsRel.RA, DecPartner
ZTF ZTF26abxswao Solar System MPC19.41 r19.412026-09-262026-09-26111.00131.6630, 14.7798
ZTF ZTF26abxswbw Solar System MPC19.18 r19.182026-09-262026-09-26111.00125.8873, 15.6883
ZTF ZTF26abxswby Solar System MPC19.01 r19.012026-09-262026-09-26111.00125.6880, 15.6643
ZTF ZTF26abxswbz Solar System MPC18.87 r18.872026-09-262026-09-26111.00125.7895, 15.9850
ZTF ZTF26abxswca Solar System MPC19.38 r19.382026-09-262026-09-26111.00125.5730, 16.2575
ZTF ZTF26abxswcb Solar System MPC19.52 r19.522026-09-262026-09-26111.00125.6809, 15.4683
ZTF ZTF26abxswea Solar System MPC17.86 r17.862026-09-262026-09-26111.00132.7159, 15.1825
ZTF ZTF26abxswec Solar System MPC19.31 r19.312026-09-262026-09-26110.99132.2452, 14.7956
ZTF ZTF26abxswhb Solar System MPC16.91 r16.912026-09-262026-09-26111.00132.3946, 13.6729
ZTF ZTF26abxswhc Solar System MPC17.65 r17.652026-09-262026-09-26111.00132.5338, 13.9995
ZTF ZTF26abxswhd Solar System MPC18.22 r18.222026-09-262026-09-26111.00132.1411, 13.6142
ZTF ZTF26abxswhe Solar System MPC19.32 r19.322026-09-262026-09-26111.00132.6013, 14.0487
ZTF ZTF26abxswja Solar System MPC14.48 r14.482026-09-262026-09-26111.00126.9438, 18.0579
ZTF ZTF26abxswjd Solar System MPC17.82 r17.822026-09-262026-09-26111.00126.5390, 18.1681
ZTF ZTF26abxswjh Solar System MPC18.63 r18.632026-09-262026-09-26111.00126.2730, 17.8676
ZTF ZTF26abxswji Solar System MPC19.32 r19.322026-09-262026-09-26111.00127.0816, 18.1823
ZTF ZTF26abxswjj Solar System MPC19.28 r19.282026-09-262026-09-26111.00126.9642, 18.0211
ZTF ZTF26abxswjo Solar System MPC17.24 r17.242026-09-262026-09-26111.00125.7602, 11.9260
ZTF ZTF26abxswma Solar System MPC18.50 r18.502026-09-262026-09-26111.00127.8462, 13.5477
ZTF ZTF26abxswmb Solar System MPC19.09 r19.092026-09-262026-09-26111.00128.0791, 14.3381
ZTF ZTF26abxswug Solar System MPC17.35 r17.352026-09-262026-09-26111.00128.7470, 14.9065
ZTF ZTF26abxswuh Solar System MPC17.76 r17.762026-09-262026-09-26111.00128.4466, 14.7778
ZTF ZTF26abxswxn Solar System MPC18.38 r18.382026-09-262026-09-26111.00128.7764, 14.1743
ZTF ZTF26abxswxp Solar System MPC19.71 r19.712026-09-262026-09-26110.99128.9011, 13.5536
ZTF ZTF26abxswzv Solar System MPC16.43 r16.432026-09-262026-09-26111.00126.2588, 13.9808
ZTF ZTF26abxswzw Solar System MPC19.50 r19.502026-09-262026-09-26111.00126.1585, 13.9732
ZTF ZTF26abxsxds Solar System MPC18.92 r18.922026-09-262026-09-26111.00126.0005, 15.0191
ZTF ZTF26abxsxdt Solar System MPC19.17 r19.172026-09-262026-09-26111.00125.5301, 15.0002
ZTF ZTF26abxsxdu Solar System MPC19.37 r19.372025-09-092026-09-26111.00125.7243, 14.8315
ZTF ZTF26abxsxdv Solar System MPC19.61 r19.612026-09-262026-09-26110.99125.4589, 15.1209
ZTF ZTF26abxsxku Solar System MPC18.45 r18.452026-09-262026-09-26111.00126.7992, 15.2356
ZTF ZTF26abxsxkv Solar System MPC18.93 r18.932026-09-262026-09-26111.00126.9049, 14.7169
ZTF ZTF26abxsxkw Solar System MPC19.05 r19.052026-09-262026-09-26111.00127.0759, 15.1987
ZTF ZTF26abxsxky Solar System MPC19.37 r19.372026-09-262026-09-26111.00127.0865, 14.9374
ZTF ZTF18aaacmdn RRLyraefaded r16.202018-01-112026-09-2616221.00144.1279, 46.3330
ZTF ZTF18aaadlhv EclBinfaded r19.072018-01-112026-09-2620311.00142.4925, 47.3103
ZTF ZTF18aaaocrm RRLyrae18.62 r17.992018-01-112026-09-2610121.00144.5791, 46.2815
ZTF ZTF18aaayomw CataclyV*faded r15.332018-01-112026-09-26330.68141.3952, 43.8215
ZTF ZTF18aaboytg Unknown17.51 r17.512018-02-112026-09-26451.00143.9628, 41.8801
ZTF ZTF18aacdyia QSOfaded r19.032019-04-092026-09-26221.00141.1780, 42.4703
ZTF ZTF18aadfqyk QSOfaded r17.992018-12-032026-09-2639781.00144.7376, 41.4725
ZTF ZTF18aadfrbq Unknownfaded r—2020-02-022026-09-26111.00144.6630, 41.2972
ZTF ZTF18aagnnyo QSOfaded r—2018-11-012026-09-26111.00145.4958, 40.9638
ZTF ZTF18aajzzqm Unknown17.04 r17.042018-04-162026-09-26331.00142.9603, 43.4636
ZTF ZTF18abzpcye QSOfaded r17.822018-09-192026-09-2636621.00141.4768, 45.5956
ZTF ZTF18accdsqw BYDraV*faded r16.852018-11-022026-09-2631421.00142.0649, 43.8100
ZTF ZTF18aceoslu Unknownfaded r—2018-04-062026-09-26110.38144.4733, 41.3971
ZTF ZTF18aclmgbk QSOAT 2021mxhfaded r17.662018-11-122026-09-2635551.00143.7605, 43.5196
ZTF ZTF18acsrhwv Unknownfaded r—2018-12-032026-09-26111.00144.6324, 41.4644
ZTF ZTF19ackjepf QSO18.90 r18.902019-05-312026-09-26111.00141.8591, 43.8943