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Rio Rancho

35.233° N   106.665° W  ·  1606 M
80 /100
PEAK
A genuinely good night — 5 hours of clear, dark sky from 00:00.
BEST WINDOW 00:00–05:00 · ASTRO DARK 22:00–05:00 · MOON 1%
Transparency
1.00
Seeing
1.00
Cloud
17%
Moon
1%

Excellent tonight

Hour by hour, local to Rio Rancho. 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
19
20
22
62
73
80
56
45
31
0
BEST WINDOW
Low cloud
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
11%
8%
Mid cloud
7%
24%
67%
57%
28%
25%
13%
2%
2%
13%
6%
High cloud
69%
90%
87%
94%
23%
2%
6%
68%
88%
88%
68%
Transparency
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
0.94
0.90
0.85
0.78
0.75
0.72
0.71
Seeing
0.61
0.76
0.90
0.78
0.93
0.98
0.96
1.00
0.98
0.98
1.00
Moon clear
0%
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down
down
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down
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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
−42
Transparency
−0
Seeing
−6
Moonlight
−0
Darkness
−53
Score
0
CLOUD 71% LOW 0% MID 7% HIGH 69% SUN -0.9° MOON 3.3° / 0% WIND 6 TEMP 29°
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.

SET UP 23:30 · OBSERVE 00:00–05:00 · 5H · MEAN 62

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

202200020406
HIGH CLOUD CLEARS 00:00
SET UP 23:30 · OBSERVE 00:00–06:00 · 6H · MEAN 59

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

202200020406
HIGH CLOUD CLEARS 00:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 06:00MOONLIGHT IGNORED FOR THIS TARGET
SET UP 23:30 · OBSERVE 00:00–04:00 · 4H · MEAN 64

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

202200020406
HIGH CLOUD CLEARS 00:00CLOUD RETURNS 04:00
SET UP 23:30 · OBSERVE 00:00–03:00 · 3H · MEAN 61

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

202200020406
HIGH CLOUD CLEARS 00:00CLOUD RETURNS 03:00
SET UP 23:30 · OBSERVE 00:00–05:00 · 5H · MEAN 58

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

202200020406
HIGH CLOUD CLEARS 00:00
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The next week of nights

Tonight · 12 Aug
80
Excellent
MOON 0%
00:00–05:00
Tomorrow · 13 Aug
66
Good
MOON 3%
22:00–06:00
Friday · 14 Aug
45
Fair
MOON 7%
00:00–01:00
Saturday · 15 Aug
42
Fair
MOON 15%
00:00–01:00
Sunday · 16 Aug
37
Fair
MOON 23%
00:00–01:00
Monday · 17 Aug
52
Fair
MOON 32%
00:00–01:00
Tuesday · 18 Aug
84
Excellent
MOON 42%
00:00–01:00
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Nearby locations

About this forecast

Conditions for Rio Rancho, New Mexico, 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 →