About Skywatch Tonight

Skywatch Tonight turns astronomy and space-weather data into a plain forecast for the night ahead. For any US city or ZIP code it gives a score out of 10, the hours when the sky is darkest, the Moon, the planets you can see, meteor showers, the chance of northern lights, ISS passes and the cloud forecast, together with the reasons behind the score.

What the site covers

• Tonight's sky and the coming months for 464 US cities in all 50 states and Washington, DC, and for any US ZIP code or your device's location.
• The 13 major meteor showers, with local best hours, and yearly meteor shower calendars.
• Moon phases for every month from 2016 to 2036, the full moon names, supermoons and blue moons.
• The planets, month by month, and their best dates.
• Northern lights chances for every state, from NOAA's live forecast.
• Solar and lunar eclipses visible from the US to 2035, with local times; those seen from at least 5% of US cities have their own page, and the rest are listed on the eclipses page.
• The 186 certified dark-sky places we list, and beginner guides.

Where the numbers come from

Positions and times of the Sun, Moon and planets, Moon phases and eclipses are calculated by our own code, built on the open-source astronomy-engine library, and checked against the US Naval Observatory. Meteor shower dates and rates come from the International Meteor Organization's calendar. The live parts come straight from public sources: NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center for the aurora forecast, the National Weather Service for clouds, and CelesTrak for the space station's orbit. Our methods page explains each calculation and how the score works.

How it works in your browser

The forecast for tonight is worked out on your own device when you open a page, so it is always for tonight, wherever and whenever you look. If you enter a location, it is remembered in your browser only, to show your sky next time; we do not receive or store it.

Corrections

If a time or a fact looks wrong, please tell us. We check every report and correct pages when needed.

The company that publishes Skywatch Tonight is identified in our privacy policy. You can reach us at [email protected].