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Chattanooga

35.046° N   85.310° W  ·  208 M
58 /100
PEAK
Worth setting up — 4 hours of workable sky from 02:00.
BEST WINDOW 02:00–06:00 · ASTRO DARK 23:00–06:00 · MOON 0%
Transparency
0.17
Seeing
1.00
Cloud
13%
Moon
0%

Good tonight

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

Sky state
Lighter = daylight and twilight  ·  unshaded = astronomical dark
Score
21
22
23
00
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
0
5
21
23
32
37
50
58
46
31
0
BEST WINDOW
Low cloud
11%
26%
28%
25%
14%
15%
7%
2%
1%
2%
3%
Mid cloud
22%
81%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
1%
2%
High cloud
89%
100%
98%
98%
77%
59%
31%
17%
54%
10%
4%
Transparency
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.16
0.16
0.16
0.16
0.17
0.17
0.17
0.17
Seeing
0.80
0.76
1.00
0.99
0.97
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
0.99
1.00
Moon clear
down
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
21 Clouded out · 0/100
Starting from
100
Cloud
−64
Transparency
−13
Seeing
−1
Moonlight
−0
Darkness
−22
Score
0
CLOUD 91% LOW 11% MID 22% HIGH 89% SUN -5.9° MOON -1.5° / 0% WIND 4 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
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 01:30 · OBSERVE 02:00–06:00 · 4H · MEAN 46

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

212301030507
HIGH CLOUD CLEARS 02:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 06:00
SET UP 00:30 · OBSERVE 01:00–07:00 · 6H · MEAN 57

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

212301030507
HIGH CLOUD CLEARS 01:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 07:00MOONLIGHT IGNORED FOR THIS TARGET
SET UP 02:30 · OBSERVE 03:00–06:00 · 3H · MEAN 43

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

212301030507
HIGH CLOUD CLEARS 03:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 06:00
SET UP 03:30 · OBSERVE 04:00–05:00 · 1H · MEAN 40

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

212301030507
CLOUD BREAKS 04:00CLOUD RETURNS 05:00
SET UP 02:30 · OBSERVE 03:00–06:00 · 3H · MEAN 51

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

212301030507
HIGH CLOUD CLEARS 03:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 06:00
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The next week of nights

Tonight · 12 Aug
58
Good
MOON 0%
02:00–06:00
Tomorrow · 13 Aug
66
Good
MOON 3%
01:00–06:00
Friday · 14 Aug
74
Good
MOON 7%
22:00–03:00
Saturday · 15 Aug
75
Excellent
MOON 15%
02:00–03:00
Sunday · 16 Aug
78
Excellent
MOON 23%
02:00–03:00
Monday · 17 Aug
72
Good
MOON 32%
02:00–03:00
Tuesday · 18 Aug
71
Good
MOON 42%
02:00–03:00
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Nearby locations

About this forecast

Conditions for Chattanooga, Tennessee, 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 →