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20-year trip-planning baseline

Best time to stargaze at Saskatoon

September: 6.5 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.
18.7–19.4 mag/arcsec²
The short answer

September has been strongest.

It averages 6.5 usable nights, versus 0.0 in June. A typical September lands between 4 and 8 usable nights.

No astronomical darkness in June. Cloud cannot rescue a night when the sun never reaches 18° below the horizon.
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

1.5 usable nights

0–2 in the middle half of years · 0.3 typically near a dark moon.

362 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

February

1.7 usable nights

0–3 in the middle half of years · 0.6 typically near a dark moon.

292 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

March

1.6 usable nights

0–2 in the middle half of years · 0.6 typically near a dark moon.

257 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

April

2.8 usable nights

1–5 in the middle half of years · 0.8 typically near a dark moon.

165 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

May

1.1 usable nights

0–2 in the middle half of years · 0.5 typically near a dark moon.

49 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

June

0.0 usable nights

0–0 in the middle half of years · 0.0 typically near a dark moon.

0 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

July

0.0 usable nights

0–0 in the middle half of years · 0.0 typically near a dark moon.

13 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

August

6.3 usable nights

4–9 in the middle half of years · 2.5 typically near a dark moon.

140 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

September

6.5 usable nights

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

220 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

October

3.9 usable nights

1–7 in the middle half of years · 1.5 typically near a dark moon.

298 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

November

1.4 usable nights

0–2 in the middle half of years · 0.6 typically near a dark moon.

340 astronomical-dark hours in an average month

December

1.7 usable nights

0–2 in the middle half of years · 0.1 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.