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Massawa

15.608° N   39.475° E  ·  9 M
68 /100
PEAK
Worth setting up — 3 hours of workable sky from 21:00.
BEST WINDOW 21:00–00:00 · ASTRO DARK 21:00–05:00 · MOON 0%
Transparency
1.00
Seeing
1.00
Cloud
48%
Moon
0%

Good tonight

Hour by hour, local to Massawa. 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
68
68
56
34
7
26
29
30
3
0
BEST WINDOW
Low cloud
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
Mid cloud
2%
9%
18%
35%
99%
48%
63%
59%
100%
99%
High cloud
56%
44%
41%
67%
23%
85%
48%
57%
100%
100%
Transparency
1.00
0.98
0.77
0.60
0.62
0.69
0.76
0.78
0.50
0.90
Seeing
1.00
0.92
0.81
0.73
0.76
0.96
1.00
1.00
0.86
0.64
Moon clear
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 Good · 68/100
Starting from
100
Cloud
−32
Transparency
−0
Seeing
−0
Moonlight
−0
Darkness
−0
Score
68
CLOUD 56% LOW 0% MID 2% HIGH 56% SUN -30.3° MOON -28.5° / 0% WIND 2 TEMP 38°
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 20:30 · OBSERVE 21:00–00:00 · 3H · MEAN 62

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

2123010305
CLOUD RETURNS 00:00
SET UP 20:30 · OBSERVE 21:00–00:00 · 3H · MEAN 62

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

2123010305
CLOUD RETURNS 00:00MOONLIGHT IGNORED FOR THIS TARGET
SET UP 20:30 · OBSERVE 21:00–00:00 · 3H · MEAN 56

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

2123010305
CLOUD RETURNS 00:00
SET UP 20:30 · OBSERVE 21:00–00:00 · 3H · MEAN 45

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

2123010305
CLOUD RETURNS 00:00
SET UP 20:30 · OBSERVE 21:00–00:00 · 3H · MEAN 57

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

2123010305
CLOUD RETURNS 00:00
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The next week of nights

Tonight · 12 Aug
68
Good
MOON 0%
21:00–00:00
Tomorrow · 13 Aug
99
Excellent
MOON 2%
20:00–05:00
Friday · 14 Aug
96
Excellent
MOON 6%
20:00–03:00
Saturday · 15 Aug
86
Excellent
MOON 13%
21:00–22:00
Sunday · 16 Aug
48
Fair
MOON 21%
21:00–22:00
Monday · 17 Aug
61
Good
MOON 30%
21:00–22:00
Tuesday · 18 Aug
48
Fair
MOON 39%
21:00–22:00
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Nearby locations

About this forecast

Conditions for Massawa, Eritrea 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 →