Stargazing Planner: The Darkest Nights Near You

The best stargazing nights are the ones with full darkness and the moon down. Pick a place and a night: the planner counts those hours, says when the Milky Way’s core is up, shows the clouds forecast for US places, ranks the next 30 nights and checks the next meteor shower’s peak night where you are.

How to use it

Type a town, pick it from the list, type coordinates (“38.57, -109.55”) or tap Use my location, then choose the night. Times are in the place’s own time zone. Tap any of the next 30 nights to see it in full. For US places the answer adds the National Weather Service’s cloud forecast over the dark hours, up to three days ahead, and the national park units with dark skies in that state. Copy the link to share the night; your own location never goes into it.

What counts as dark

Full darkness starts when twilight ends. The U.S. Naval Observatory: “Astronomical twilight is defined to begin in the morning, and to end in the evening when the center of the Sun is geometrically 18 degrees below the horizon.” Then the moon: the planner finds when it rises and sets and how much of it is lit, and counts the minutes of full darkness with the moon below the horizon. The National Park Service puts it simply: “If the full moon is up, the Milky Way will be hard to see.” A night with 4 hours or more of moon-free darkness is dark, 1 to 4 hours part dark, and less than an hour moonlit.

The Milky Way’s core is the Galactic Centre, at the position NASA’s Chandra X-ray Center gives (right ascension 17h 45m 40s, declination −29° 00′ 28″). The planner says when it is above the horizon during full darkness and how high it climbs: from the continental US it never gets high, so a clear southern horizon matters. The NPS: “The Milky Way is our home galaxy and is best seen in summer and fall evening skies.”

The meteor showers

NASA lists the peak nights, with dates from the American Meteor Society. Whether a peak is worth staying up for depends on the moon where you are, which the planner works out for your place.

Worked examples

Flagstaff, Arizona, on September 30, 2026. A waning moon rises in the evening, leaving 1 h 5 min of full darkness with the moon down; the next dark night is Sat, Oct 3.

The Orionids from Flagstaff. On the peak night, October 21–22, 2026, the moon is 83% lit, leaving 2 h 20 min of moon-free darkness.

The Geminids from Flagstaff. On December 13–14, 2026 the moon is only 23% lit: 8 h 30 min of moon-free darkness, a good year for them.

The Milky Way from Moab in July. On July 5, 2027 its core is up through full darkness and climbs to 22° above the southern horizon, with 5 h 25 min of moon-free darkness.

Common mistakes

• Going on the full moon weekend. The moon washes out all but the brightest stars; the planner’s calendar shows the dark stretch around each new moon.
• Leaving at sunset. Full darkness comes more than an hour after sunset, and later still in summer and farther north.
• Checking the clouds a week ahead. The forecast used here runs three days; check it again the afternoon you go.
• Looking toward the city. Face away from the nearest town’s glow, and give your eyes time to adjust with a red light.

Plan the trip

Read our guide to dark sky parks in the US, the states where you can see the Milky Way, where to see it in Florida, camping ideas across the USA and Bryce Canyon. Then check the northern lights forecast, sunset and golden hour and which parks need a reservation.