Your place.
Your next moment.

Choose your place

Select the location at the top of the website to explore a city or use your current location. Location permission is optional. We only request it when you select “Use my location.” Your choice is saved in this browser, and moving the globe doesn’t change it.

If location access is unavailable, choose a city from the collection. Weather forecasts are currently available for supported U.S. places; the Sun and Moon work worldwide.

Explore the moments

Today brings forward a timely moment. Sky and Earth each have a featured moment followed by options to explore. Open a moment to use its time slider and see more detail.

Drag the globe or Moon to turn it. In full screen, use the zoom controls or pinch on a touch screen. With a keyboard, focus the globe and use the arrow keys, plus and minus, or Home to return to your chosen view. Use Escape or Done to close the full view.

Understand the seasonal maps

Fall shows Next Light’s experimental color estimates from the same licensed data feed as the app. The slider moves through the available outlook. If that feed is older than 48 hours, it is not shown as current.

Where there is enough local history, the forecast graph shows the season’s typical arrival window and today’s position. Historical autumn vegetation change is not the same as peak leaf color. A dated peak window only appears when the current model supports one.

Spring and Blooms on the web show typical timing from the USA National Phenology Network’s 2016–2024 archive. These are historical patterns, not this year’s observed progress. Blooms follows early flowering shrubs rather than every flower species. If the seasonal window has passed, the estimate moves to next year. Unsupported areas remain empty.

Read the sky

Light times and Moon phases are calculated for the selected time. Weather, nearby lights, terrain, and your horizon affect what you actually see.

Stars uses National Weather Service cloud forecasts where available. Its slider covers the available forecast period, up to seven days. Missing readings remain unknown.

Aurora shows NOAA’s short-term OVATION model. The map does not promise a sighting or invent a week-long outlook. A current-only source has a legend instead of a time slider. Maps older than two hours are omitted.

Choose notifications on iPhone

The website is for exploring. The iPhone app offers optional reminders for light moments and aurora alerts. Choose the notifications you want, and manage permissions in iPhone Settings. iOS may delay background checks; alert timing is not guaranteed.

Learn about Next Light for iPhone.

When something is unavailable

Reopen or reload the page to request fresh readings. Some sources have limited geographic coverage or may be temporarily unavailable. Empty areas do not mean there is no activity. The Sun and Moon calculations and available seasonal history can still be explored when live forecasts cannot be reached.

The interactive scene needs WebGL. If your browser cannot display it, the written forecast remains available. Reduced Motion settings stop ambient animation.

Sources

Open “About this moment” in the full view for the relevant source and its limits. Seasonal data were provided by the USA National Phenology Network under CC BY 4.0. Read the full attribution. Basemap boundaries are from Natural Earth. The lunar surface is from NASA’s CGI Moon Kit.

Get in touch

Email support@nextlight.today. Include your browser or app version and what happened. You don’t need to share your home address.