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Hartbeesfontein

-26.766° S 26.420° E · 1463 M

59 /100
PEAK

Worth setting up — 2 hours of workable sky from 21:00.

BEST WINDOW 21:00–23:00 · ASTRO DARK 20:00–06:00 · MOON 0%

Transparency

0.76

Seeing

0.78

Cloud

23%

Moon

Good tonight

Hour by hour, local to Hartbeesfontein. 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

41%

59%

20%

31%

23%

36%

73%

66%

39%

33%

Mid cloud

33%

32%

26%

70%

97%

98%

73%

39%

13%

High cloud

16%

37%

89%

70%

19%

22%

23%

22%

Transparency

0.76

0.70

0.63

0.54

0.53

0.51

0.47

0.44

0.42

0.40

0.30

0.22

0.20

Seeing

0.64

0.58

0.61

0.64

0.62

0.64

0.67

0.69

0.68

0.72

0.76

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

19 Poor · 27/100

Starting from

100

Cloud

−59

Transparency

−4

Seeing

−3

Moonlight

−0

Darkness

−7

Score

CLOUD 54% LOW 41% MID 33% HIGH 0% SUN -15.5° MOON -14.8° / 0% WIND 6 TEMP 11°

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 20:30 · OBSERVE 21:00–23:00 · 2H · MEAN 52

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

19212301030507

CLOUD BREAKS 21:00CLOUD RETURNS 23:00

SET UP 03:30 · OBSERVE 04:00–07:00 · 3H · MEAN 51

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

19212301030507

HIGH CLOUD CLEARS 04:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 07:00MOONLIGHT IGNORED FOR THIS TARGET

SET UP 20:30 · OBSERVE 21:00–23:00 · 2H · MEAN 52

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

19212301030507

CLOUD BREAKS 21:00CLOUD RETURNS 23:00

SET UP 20:30 · OBSERVE 21:00–22:00 · 1H · MEAN 50

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

19212301030507

CLOUD BREAKS 21:00CLOUD RETURNS 22:00

SET UP 20:30 · OBSERVE 21:00–23:00 · 2H · MEAN 52

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

19212301030507

CLOUD BREAKS 21:00CLOUD RETURNS 23:00

The next week of nights

Tonight · 12 Aug

Good

MOON 0%
21:00–23:00

Tomorrow · 13 Aug

Good

MOON 2%
20:00–06:00

Friday · 14 Aug

Excellent

MOON 6%
20:00–06:00

Saturday · 15 Aug

Excellent

MOON 13%
02:00–03:00

Sunday · 16 Aug

Excellent

MOON 21%
02:00–03:00

Monday · 17 Aug

Excellent

MOON 30%
02:00–03:00

Tuesday · 18 Aug

Excellent

MOON 39%
02:00–03:00

Nearby locations

About this forecast

Conditions for Hartbeesfontein, 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 →