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Cedar Falls

42.528° N   92.445° W  ·  272 M
56 /100
PEAK
Worth setting up — 2 hours of workable sky from 22:00.
BEST WINDOW 22:00–00:00 · ASTRO DARK 23:00–05:00 · MOON 1%
Transparency
0.25
Seeing
1.00
Cloud
21%
Moon
1%

Good tonight

Hour by hour, local to Cedar Falls. 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
0
11
56
35
30
30
30
30
28
18
0
BEST WINDOW
Low cloud
9%
2%
1%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
Mid cloud
3%
1%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
9%
0%
53%
High cloud
2%
19%
23%
88%
99%
99%
99%
100%
100%
99%
98%
Transparency
0.34
0.25
0.21
0.19
0.17
0.17
0.17
0.19
0.19
0.19
0.18
Seeing
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
0.93
0.97
1.00
1.00
Moon clear
0%
down
down
down
down
down
down
down
down
down
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
20 Clouded out · 0/100
Starting from
100
Cloud
−12
Transparency
−23
Seeing
−0
Moonlight
−0
Darkness
−65
Score
0
CLOUD 12% LOW 9% MID 3% HIGH 2% SUN 2.0° MOON 5.4° / 0% WIND 2 TEMP 26°
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
When a clear gap is worth driving for

Ask how long the gap is relative to your setup time and your exposure length. A two-hour gap is a real session for a visual observer and close to worthless for someone doing four-minute subs on a target that needs three hours.

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 22:00–23:00 · 1H · MEAN 53

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

202200020406
ASTRONOMICAL DARK FROM 22:00CLOUD RETURNS 23:00
SET UP 20:30 · OBSERVE 21:00–03:00 · 6H · MEAN 45

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

202200020406
MOONLIGHT IGNORED FOR THIS TARGET
SET UP 21:30 · OBSERVE 22:00–23:00 · 1H · MEAN 47

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

202200020406
ASTRONOMICAL DARK FROM 22:00CLOUD RETURNS 23:00
SET UP 21:30 · OBSERVE 22:00–23:00 · 1H · MEAN 38

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

202200020406
ASTRONOMICAL DARK FROM 22:00CLOUD RETURNS 23:00
SET UP 21:30 · OBSERVE 22:00–23:00 · 1H · MEAN 55

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

202200020406
ASTRONOMICAL DARK FROM 22:00CLOUD RETURNS 23:00
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The next week of nights

Tonight · 12 Aug
56
Good
MOON 0%
22:00–00:00
Tomorrow · 13 Aug
37
Fair
MOON 3%
02:00–03:00
Friday · 14 Aug
38
Fair
MOON 7%
22:00–23:00
Saturday · 15 Aug
29
Poor
MOON 15%
Sunday · 16 Aug
41
Fair
MOON 23%
01:00–02:00
Monday · 17 Aug
69
Good
MOON 32%
01:00–02:00
Tuesday · 18 Aug
31
Poor
MOON 42%
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Nearby locations

About this forecast

Conditions for Cedar Falls, Iowa, 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 →