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Cary

35.791° N   78.781° W  ·  152 M
58 /100
PEAK
Worth setting up — 8 hours of workable sky from 22:00.
BEST WINDOW 22:00–06:00 · ASTRO DARK 22:00–05:00 · MOON 0%
Transparency
0.52
Seeing
1.00
Cloud
41%
Moon
0%

Good tonight

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

Sky state
Lighter = daylight and twilight  ·  unshaded = astronomical dark
Score
20
21
22
23
00
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
0
15
51
50
53
58
41
39
45
51
4
0
BEST WINDOW
Low cloud
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
Mid cloud
2%
1%
1%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
2%
10%
23%
High cloud
93%
84%
63%
63%
55%
43%
82%
84%
68%
41%
35%
81%
Transparency
0.64
0.52
0.47
0.44
0.43
0.41
0.36
0.32
0.28
0.25
0.23
0.21
Seeing
0.91
0.90
0.97
0.94
0.92
0.96
1.00
0.98
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
Moon clear
0%
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down
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down
down
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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
20 Clouded out · 0/100
Starting from
100
Cloud
−52
Transparency
−7
Seeing
−1
Moonlight
−0
Darkness
−40
Score
0
CLOUD 93% LOW 0% MID 2% HIGH 93% SUN 0.9° MOON 4.5° / 0% WIND 3 TEMP 28°
Excellent 75+ Good 55+ Fair 35+ Poor 15+ Not worth it Seeing is estimated from surface wind — see how we score.
Tonight's limiting factor
Why thin high cloud ruins long exposures

Cirrus you can barely see will halo your bright stars, lift your background and vary between frames. Visual observers shrug it off. Long exposures integrate it, so it accumulates.

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.

SET UP 21:30 · OBSERVE 22:00–06:00 · 8H · MEAN 46

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

202200020406
HIGH CLOUD CLEARS 22:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 06:00
SET UP 21:30 · OBSERVE 22:00–06:00 · 8H · MEAN 55

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

202200020406
HIGH CLOUD CLEARS 22:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 06:00MOONLIGHT IGNORED FOR THIS TARGET
SET UP 21:30 · OBSERVE 22:00–02:00 · 4H · MEAN 43

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

202200020406
HIGH CLOUD CLEARS 22:00CLOUD RETURNS 02:00
SET UP 00:30 · OBSERVE 01:00–02:00 · 1H · MEAN 37

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

202200020406
CLOUD RETURNS 02:00
SET UP 21:30 · OBSERVE 22:00–02:00 · 4H · MEAN 49

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

202200020406
HIGH CLOUD CLEARS 22:00CLOUD RETURNS 02:00
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The next week of nights

Tonight · 12 Aug
58
Good
MOON 0%
22:00–06:00
Tomorrow · 13 Aug
55
Good
MOON 3%
22:00–06:00
Friday · 14 Aug
59
Good
MOON 7%
22:00–03:00
Saturday · 15 Aug
24
Poor
MOON 15%
Sunday · 16 Aug
48
Fair
MOON 23%
02:00–03:00
Monday · 17 Aug
75
Excellent
MOON 32%
02:00–03:00
Tuesday · 18 Aug
55
Good
MOON 42%
02:00–03:00
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Nearby locations

About this forecast

Conditions for Cary, North Carolina, United States 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 →