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20-year trip-planning baseline

Best time to stargaze at Palm Bay

May: 12.9 usable nights on average. Use this seasonal climate baseline to choose a month, then use the live forecast to choose a night.

Site darkness · modelled, not measured
Bright skyBortle classes describe observed sky conditions; this brightness model does not establish a measured Bortle class.
19.6–20.3 mag/arcsec²
The short answer

May has been strongest.

It averages 12.9 usable nights, versus 5.4 in June. A typical May lands between 12 and 15 usable nights.

Record2005–2024 · 20 complete years
Usable nightAt least 3 astronomical-dark hours and NASA POWER nighttime cloud ≤30%
Dark-moon nightUsable night with ≤25% illumination at local solar midnight
ResolutionCERES SYN1deg 1° cloud grid; regional climate, not a campsite guarantee
Seasonal fingerprint

Usable nights by month

Range shows year-to-year spread

Month by month

January

6.8 usable nights

5–10 in the middle half of years · 2.3 typically near a dark moon.

329 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

February

9.3 usable nights

8–11 in the middle half of years · 2.8 typically near a dark moon.

283 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

March

10.8 usable nights

8–14 in the middle half of years · 4.2 typically near a dark moon.

298 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

April

11.4 usable nights

9–14 in the middle half of years · 3.5 typically near a dark moon.

242 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

May

12.9 usable nights

12–15 in the middle half of years · 4.3 typically near a dark moon.

248 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

June

5.4 usable nights

3–7 in the middle half of years · 2.1 typically near a dark moon.

220 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

July

5.7 usable nights

2–8 in the middle half of years · 1.9 typically near a dark moon.

234 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

August

5.6 usable nights

3–7 in the middle half of years · 1.9 typically near a dark moon.

248 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

September

6.7 usable nights

4–8 in the middle half of years · 1.6 typically near a dark moon.

270 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

October

12.8 usable nights

11–14 in the middle half of years · 4.1 typically near a dark moon.

310 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

November

8.8 usable nights

7–12 in the middle half of years · 2.5 typically near a dark moon.

318 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

December

7.8 usable nights

5–10 in the middle half of years · 2.8 typically near a dark moon.

322 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

Use the baseline honestly

Climate chooses the month. Forecasts choose the night.

The cloud product is a roughly 1° regional grid. It can reveal seasonality, but it cannot know a mountain ridge, valley fog pocket, locked gate, smoke event or the exact sky you will get.

Source: NASA POWER daily data, parameter CLOUD_AMT_NIGHT from the CERES SYN1deg cloud product. GoodSeeing calculates astronomical darkness and lunar illumination independently for each place.