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20-year trip-planning baseline

Best time to stargaze at Quinte West

September: 9.8 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
Brightened skyBortle classes describe observed sky conditions; this brightness model does not establish a measured Bortle class.
20.8–21.2 mag/arcsec²
The short answer

September has been strongest.

It averages 9.8 usable nights, versus 1.1 in December. A typical September lands between 7 and 12 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

2.5 usable nights

2–3 in the middle half of years · 0.6 typically near a dark moon.

355 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

February

3.1 usable nights

2–4 in the middle half of years · 0.8 typically near a dark moon.

292 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

March

5.5 usable nights

4–7 in the middle half of years · 1.6 typically near a dark moon.

270 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

April

5.2 usable nights

3–5 in the middle half of years · 1.6 typically near a dark moon.

210 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

May

6.3 usable nights

4–8 in the middle half of years · 2.1 typically near a dark moon.

155 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

June

5.3 usable nights

4–6 in the middle half of years · 1.9 typically near a dark moon.

120 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

July

9.3 usable nights

8–10 in the middle half of years · 2.8 typically near a dark moon.

133 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

August

8.6 usable nights

6–11 in the middle half of years · 3.0 typically near a dark moon.

196 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

September

9.8 usable nights

7–12 in the middle half of years · 3.4 typically near a dark moon.

246 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

October

5.1 usable nights

4–6 in the middle half of years · 1.6 typically near a dark moon.

303 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

November

3.5 usable nights

2–5 in the middle half of years · 1.3 typically near a dark moon.

332 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

December

1.1 usable nights

1–1 in the middle half of years · 0.2 typically near a dark moon.

372 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.