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Rolleston

-43.583° S 172.383° E · 60 M

45 /100
PEAK

Marginal, but there is a 2 hours gap from 04:00.

BEST WINDOW 04:00–06:00 · ASTRO DARK 04:00–06:00 · MOON 0%

Transparency

0.37

Seeing

0.44

Cloud

33%

Moon

Fair tonight

Hour by hour, local to Rolleston. 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

13%

Mid cloud

16%

34%

50%

90%

High cloud

21%

Transparency

0.37

0.36

0.37

Seeing

0.38

0.41

0.44

0.49

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

04 Fair · 45/100

Starting from

100

Cloud

−29

Transparency

−18

Seeing

−8

Moonlight

−0

Darkness

−0

Score

CLOUD 33% LOW 13% MID 16% HIGH 8% SUN -38.2° MOON -39.5° / 0% WIND 8 TEMP 9°

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 03:30 · OBSERVE 04:00–06:00 · 2H · MEAN 45

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

0406

SET UP 03:30 · OBSERVE 04:00–06:00 · 2H · MEAN 39

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

0406

SEEING STAYS SOFT THROUGHOUTMOONLIGHT IGNORED FOR THIS TARGET

SET UP 03:30 · OBSERVE 04:00–06:00 · 2H · MEAN 42

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

0406

SET UP 03:30 · OBSERVE 04:00–05:00 · 1H · MEAN 35

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

0406

CLOUD RETURNS 05:00

SET UP 03:30 · OBSERVE 04:00–06:00 · 2H · MEAN 46

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

0406

The next week of nights

Tonight · 12 Aug

Fair

MOON 0%
04:00–06:00

Tomorrow · 13 Aug

Good

MOON 1%
20:00–05:00

Friday · 14 Aug

Clouded out

MOON 4%

Saturday · 15 Aug

Poor

MOON 8%

Sunday · 16 Aug

Good

MOON 17%
00:00–01:00

Monday · 17 Aug

Fair

MOON 25%
00:00–01:00

Tuesday · 18 Aug

Fair

MOON 35%
00:00–01:00

Nearby locations

About this forecast

Conditions for Rolleston, New Zealand 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 →