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Zacapa

14.969° N 89.527° W · 232 M

53 /100
PEAK

Marginal, but there is a 9 hours gap from 20:00.

BEST WINDOW 20:00–05:00 · ASTRO DARK 20:00–05:00 · MOON 1%

Transparency

0.42

Seeing

1.00

Cloud

24%

Moon

Fair tonight

Hour by hour, local to Zacapa. 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

10%

15%

12%

22%

20%

28%

48%

38%

27%

24%

40%

Mid cloud

20%

15%

14%

High cloud

53%

55%

57%

15%

20%

23%

18%

13%

Transparency

0.47

0.42

0.41

0.42

0.40

0.38

0.36

0.35

0.34

0.32

0.31

0.30

Seeing

0.83

0.90

0.96

1.00

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

18 Clouded out · 0/100

Starting from

100

Cloud

−38

Transparency

−13

Seeing

−2

Moonlight

−0

Darkness

−47

Score

CLOUD 59% LOW 10% MID 2% HIGH 53% SUN 4.6° MOON 9.2° / 0% WIND 4 TEMP 26°

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

Conditions for planets and the Moon

Seeing is everything. Darkness and moonlight barely matter, and a hazy, humid night that ruins deep-sky work is often the steadiest night of the year for planetary detail.

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 19:30 · OBSERVE 20:00–05:00 · 9H · MEAN 45

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

18202200020406

ASTRONOMICAL DARK FROM 20:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 05:00

SET UP 18:30 · OBSERVE 19:00–06:00 · 11H · MEAN 52

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

18202200020406

CLOUD RETURNS 06:00MOONLIGHT IGNORED FOR THIS TARGET

SET UP 19:30 · OBSERVE 20:00–02:00 · 6H · MEAN 40

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

18202200020406

ASTRONOMICAL DARK FROM 20:00

SET UP 03:30 · OBSERVE 04:00–05:00 · 1H · MEAN 39

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

18202200020406

TWILIGHT BEGINS 05:00

SET UP 19:30 · OBSERVE 20:00–02:00 · 6H · MEAN 43

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

18202200020406

ASTRONOMICAL DARK FROM 20:00

The next week of nights

Tonight · 12 Aug

Fair

MOON 0%
20:00–05:00

Tomorrow · 13 Aug

Good

MOON 3%
20:00–05:00

Friday · 14 Aug

Good

MOON 7%
20:00–01:00

Saturday · 15 Aug

Clouded out

MOON 15%

Sunday · 16 Aug

Good

MOON 23%
00:00–01:00

Monday · 17 Aug

Good

MOON 32%
00:00–01:00

Tuesday · 18 Aug

Poor

MOON 42%

Nearby locations

About this forecast

Conditions for Zacapa, Guatemala 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 →