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Botshabelo

-29.267° S 26.726° E · 1448 M

61 /100
PEAK

Worth setting up — 7 hours of workable sky from 23:00.

BEST WINDOW 23:00–06:00 · ASTRO DARK 20:00–06:00 · MOON 0%

Transparency

0.71

Seeing

0.77

Cloud

10%

Moon

Good tonight

Hour by hour, local to Botshabelo. Colour encodes the score and nothing else; every other measurement is luminance.

Sky state

Lighter = daylight and twilight · unshaded = astronomical dark

Score

BEST WINDOW

Low cloud

15%

18%

15%

11%

10%

Mid cloud

56%

34%

25%

35%

73%

32%

26%

18%

11%

10%

25%

52%

20%

12%

High cloud

Transparency

0.82

0.71

0.64

0.61

0.60

0.55

0.47

0.43

0.40

0.36

0.34

0.32

0.31

0.30

Seeing

0.77

0.74

0.72

0.67

0.66

0.64

0.63

0.62

0.65

0.69

0.74

0.78

Moon clear

down

Inspect

Cloud tracks show clear sky — a longer bar is better. The figure inside each track is the raw measurement.

Why this hour scored what it did

18 Clouded out · 0/100

Starting from

100

Cloud

−54

Transparency

−3

Seeing

−2

Moonlight

−0

Darkness

−41

Score

CLOUD 57% LOW 6% MID 56% HIGH 0% SUN -3.3° MOON -2.9° / 0% WIND 4 TEMP 12°

Excellent 75+ Good 55+ Fair 35+ Poor 15+ Not worth it Seeing is estimated from surface wind — see how we score.

What are you doing tonight?

The same forecast, weighted for the target. Planetary work barely cares about moonlight; long exposures die on high cloud a visual observer would never notice.

Deep-sky visualPlanetary & lunarWide-field imagingLong exposureMeteor watching

SET UP 22:30 · OBSERVE 23:00–06:00 · 7H · MEAN 55

Darkness and moonlight dominate. Faint fuzzies need a genuinely dark sky more than they need steady air.

18202200020406

CLOUD BREAKS 23:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 06:00

SET UP 22:30 · OBSERVE 23:00–07:00 · 8H · MEAN 53

Seeing is everything and moonlight is irrelevant. Bright targets punch through twilight, so darkness barely counts.

18202200020406

CLOUD BREAKS 23:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 07:00MOONLIGHT IGNORED FOR THIS TARGET

SET UP 22:30 · OBSERVE 23:00–06:00 · 7H · MEAN 53

Tolerates soft seeing, but high cloud wrecks a wide frame and moonlight raises the background everywhere.

18202200020406

CLOUD BREAKS 23:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 06:00

SET UP 22:30 · OBSERVE 23:00–05:00 · 6H · MEAN 44

Needs conditions to hold still for hours. Sustained transparency matters more than any single good hour.

18202200020406

CLOUD BREAKS 23:00CLOUD RETURNS 05:00

SET UP 22:30 · OBSERVE 23:00–06:00 · 7H · MEAN 57

Naked eye, whole sky. Total cloud and moonlight are the only things that count.

18202200020406

CLOUD BREAKS 23:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 06:00

The next week of nights

Tonight · 12 Aug

Good

MOON 0%
23:00–06:00

Tomorrow · 13 Aug

Excellent

MOON 2%
20:00–06:00

Friday · 14 Aug

Excellent

MOON 6%
20:00–06:00

Saturday · 15 Aug

Excellent

MOON 13%
20:00–21:00

Sunday · 16 Aug

Excellent

MOON 21%
20:00–21:00

Monday · 17 Aug

Excellent

MOON 30%
20:00–21:00

Tuesday · 18 Aug

Excellent

MOON 39%
02:00–03:00

Nearby locations

About this forecast

Conditions for Botshabelo, South Africa are computed from the MET Norway forecast model for these exact coordinates, combined with sun and moon positions we calculate directly. The score weighs cloud cover by layer, atmospheric transparency, estimated seeing, moonlight and how dark the sky actually gets. Read the full method →