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Vredenburg

-32.907° S   17.990° E  ·  129 M
86 /100
PEAK
A genuinely good night — 11 hours of clear, dark sky from 20:00.
BEST WINDOW 20:00–07:00 · ASTRO DARK 20:00–07:00 · MOON 0%
Transparency
1.00
Seeing
0.54
Cloud
0%
Moon
0%

Excellent tonight

Hour by hour, local to Vredenburg. Colour encodes the score and nothing else; every other measurement is luminance.

Sky state
Lighter = daylight and twilight  ·  unshaded = astronomical dark
Score
19
20
21
22
23
00
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
24
70
86
79
81
81
80
81
80
79
80
79
4
0
BEST WINDOW
Low cloud
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
Mid cloud
6%
23%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
High cloud
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
Transparency
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
Seeing
0.54
0.50
0.45
0.17
0.25
0.23
0.21
0.22
0.20
0.15
0.18
0.17
0.17
0.15
Moon clear
down
down
down
down
down
down
down
down
down
down
down
down
down
0%
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
19 Poor · 24/100
Starting from
100
Cloud
−6
Transparency
−0
Seeing
−11
Moonlight
−0
Darkness
−60
Score
24
CLOUD 6% LOW 0% MID 6% HIGH 0% SUN -9.4° MOON -9.0° / 0% WIND 7 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
Transparency vs seeing

Transparency is how much light gets through the atmosphere. Seeing is how steady it is. They are independent, they often move in opposite directions, and which one matters depends entirely on what you are pointing at.

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 20:00–07:00 · 11H · MEAN 90

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

19212301030507
ASTRONOMICAL DARK FROM 20:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 07:00
SET UP 18:30 · OBSERVE 19:00–07:00 · 12H · MEAN 61

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

19212301030507
TWILIGHT BEGINS 07:00SEEING STAYS SOFT THROUGHOUTMOONLIGHT IGNORED FOR THIS TARGET
SET UP 19:30 · OBSERVE 20:00–07:00 · 11H · MEAN 94

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

19212301030507
ASTRONOMICAL DARK FROM 20:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 07:00
SET UP 19:30 · OBSERVE 20:00–07:00 · 11H · MEAN 88

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

19212301030507
ASTRONOMICAL DARK FROM 20:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 07:00
SET UP 19:30 · OBSERVE 20:00–07:00 · 11H · MEAN 98

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

19212301030507
ASTRONOMICAL DARK FROM 20:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 07:00
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The next week of nights

Tonight · 12 Aug
86
Excellent
MOON 0%
20:00–07:00
Tomorrow · 13 Aug
84
Excellent
MOON 2%
20:00–06:00
Friday · 14 Aug
67
Good
MOON 6%
20:00–22:00
Saturday · 15 Aug
8
Clouded out
MOON 13%
Sunday · 16 Aug
17
Poor
MOON 21%
Monday · 17 Aug
0
Clouded out
MOON 30%
Tuesday · 18 Aug
43
Fair
MOON 39%
20:00–21:00
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Nearby locations

About this forecast

Conditions for Vredenburg, South Africa 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 →