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Rongo

-0.757° S   34.598° E  ·  1474 M
83 /100
PEAK
A genuinely good night — 10 hours of clear, dark sky from 20:00.
BEST WINDOW 20:00–06:00 · ASTRO DARK 21:00–06:00 · MOON 0%
Transparency
0.80
Seeing
0.98
Cloud
4%
Moon
0%

Excellent tonight

Hour by hour, local to Rongo. 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
07
83
63
42
43
40
47
58
51
56
82
37
0
BEST WINDOW
Low cloud
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
Mid cloud
3%
2%
2%
1%
1%
1%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
1%
High cloud
0%
41%
83%
82%
88%
69%
50%
72%
63%
6%
6%
2%
Transparency
0.74
0.59
0.52
0.52
0.43
0.41
0.57
0.70
0.80
0.79
0.78
0.76
Seeing
0.86
0.96
0.89
0.91
0.98
0.96
0.87
0.80
0.76
0.68
0.67
0.65
Moon clear
down
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
20 Excellent · 83/100
Starting from
100
Cloud
−3
Transparency
−10
Seeing
−3
Moonlight
−0
Darkness
−1
Score
83
CLOUD 4% LOW 0% MID 3% HIGH 0% SUN -17.8° MOON -16.6° / 0% WIND 3 TEMP 23°
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 19:30 · OBSERVE 20:00–06:00 · 10H · MEAN 55

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

202200020406
TWILIGHT BEGINS 06:00
SET UP 19:30 · OBSERVE 20:00–07:00 · 11H · MEAN 58

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

202200020406
TWILIGHT BEGINS 07:00MOONLIGHT IGNORED FOR THIS TARGET
SET UP 00:30 · OBSERVE 01:00–06:00 · 5H · MEAN 51

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

202200020406
HIGH CLOUD CLEARS 01:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 06:00
SET UP 19:30 · OBSERVE 20:00–22:00 · 2H · MEAN 61

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

202200020406
CLOUD RETURNS 22:00
SET UP 00:30 · OBSERVE 01:00–06:00 · 5H · MEAN 56

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

202200020406
HIGH CLOUD CLEARS 01:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 06:00
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The next week of nights

Tonight · 12 Aug
83
Excellent
MOON 0%
20:00–06:00
Tomorrow · 13 Aug
90
Excellent
MOON 2%
02:00–06:00
Friday · 14 Aug
72
Good
MOON 6%
02:00–06:00
Saturday · 15 Aug
77
Excellent
MOON 13%
21:00–22:00
Sunday · 16 Aug
57
Good
MOON 21%
03:00–04:00
Monday · 17 Aug
74
Good
MOON 30%
03:00–04:00
Tuesday · 18 Aug
80
Excellent
MOON 39%
03:00–04:00
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Nearby locations

About this forecast

Conditions for Rongo, 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 →