The night sky on the night of the first public film screening — 28 December 1895

On 28 December 1895 Auguste and Louis Lumière held the first public, paid screening of films in the Salon Indien of the Grand Café on the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris. The audience watched ten short films made with their Cinématographe, including workers leaving the Lumière factory in Lyon. It is often called the birth of cinema.

The sky over Grand Café, Boulevard des Capucines, Paris, France

This is the real sky above Grand Café, Boulevard des Capucines, Paris, France (48.87°N, 2.33°E) on 28 December 1895 at 22:00 Paris mean time (UTC+0:09) that night (1895-12-28 21:51 UTC). The Sun was 55° below the horizon: it was full night. The Moon (waxing gibbous, 90% lit) was 65° up in the south-west. Planets above the horizon: Jupiter (31° in the east). Brightest named stars up: Sirius, Capella, Rigel, Procyon and Betelgeuse.

Star map of the sky over Grand Café, Boulevard des Capucines, Paris, France on 28 December 1895 at 22:00 JupiterMoon SiriusCapellaRigelProcyonBetelgeuseAldebaranPolluxDeneb NSEW
801 stars brighter than magnitude 5 above the horizon, with the constellation figures. Look up: north at the top, east on the left.

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