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Karatina

-0.484° S   37.127° E  ·  1766 M
69 /100
PEAK
Worth setting up — 7 hours of workable sky from 23:00.
BEST WINDOW 23:00–06:00 · ASTRO DARK 21:00–06:00 · MOON 0%
Transparency
0.74
Seeing
1.00
Cloud
6%
Moon
0%

Good tonight

Hour by hour, local to Karatina. 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
45
18
47
38
50
68
62
62
69
18
0
BEST WINDOW
Low cloud
14%
58%
5%
4%
1%
1%
1%
0%
0%
0%
0%
Mid cloud
6%
23%
2%
1%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
High cloud
55%
64%
69%
92%
69%
23%
29%
29%
12%
6%
23%
Transparency
0.67
0.74
0.72
0.63
0.55
0.49
0.42
0.37
0.34
0.31
0.32
Seeing
0.67
0.65
0.66
0.81
0.96
0.95
0.87
0.92
1.00
1.00
0.96
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 Fair · 45/100
Starting from
100
Cloud
−43
Transparency
−8
Seeing
−4
Moonlight
−0
Darkness
−0
Score
45
CLOUD 61% LOW 14% MID 6% HIGH 55% SUN -34.6° MOON -32.7° / 0% WIND 5 TEMP 17°
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 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.

212301030507
TWILIGHT BEGINS 06:00
SET UP 22:30 · OBSERVE 23:00–07:00 · 8H · MEAN 61

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

212301030507
CLOUD RETURNS 07:00MOONLIGHT IGNORED FOR THIS TARGET
SET UP 00:30 · OBSERVE 01:00–06:00 · 5H · MEAN 54

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

212301030507
HIGH CLOUD CLEARS 01:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 06:00
SET UP 01:30 · OBSERVE 02:00–06:00 · 4H · MEAN 49

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

212301030507
HIGH CLOUD CLEARS 02:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 06:00
SET UP 00:30 · OBSERVE 01:00–06:00 · 5H · MEAN 62

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

212301030507
HIGH CLOUD CLEARS 01:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 06:00
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The next week of nights

Tonight · 12 Aug
69
Good
MOON 0%
23:00–06:00
Tomorrow · 13 Aug
86
Excellent
MOON 2%
20:00–06:00
Friday · 14 Aug
70
Good
MOON 6%
21:00–03:00
Saturday · 15 Aug
58
Good
MOON 13%
21:00–22:00
Sunday · 16 Aug
11
Clouded out
MOON 21%
Monday · 17 Aug
1
Clouded out
MOON 30%
Tuesday · 18 Aug
33
Poor
MOON 39%
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Nearby locations

About this forecast

Conditions for Karatina, Kenya 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 →