Astronomers Pinpoint the Real Night Sky Behind Van Gogh's 'The Starry Night'

A new study published in Scientific Reports by researchers from South Korean telescope manufacturer SLLAB and Kyung Hee University's School of Space Research has resolved a long-standing mystery: Vincent van Gogh's iconic painting 'The Starry Night' depicts a real astronomical scene, not an imaginary one. Using statistical shape analysis, the team matched the five central bright points in the painting to the V-shaped Hyades star cluster in the constellation Taurus. By combining this with the positions of a crescent moon and Venus, they determined the sky over the Saint-Rémy asylum in southern France as it appeared on 22 July 1889 — roughly a month later than the traditionally assumed date of 18 June. That earlier date had to be ruled out because the moon on 18 June was in its waning gibbous phase, which does not match the slender crescent visible in the painting. The team also conducted field studies at Saint-Rémy to confirm Van Gogh's viewing angle, and cross-referenced original French and Dutch letters to show that a seizure previously thought to fall on 22 July actually began in late July. The findings reframe 'The Starry Night' as a careful record of astronomical observation, and the researchers note the same method could be extended to other historical night-sky paintings — including Van Gogh's 'Café Terrace at Night', which they linked to the Summer Triangle asterism.