What can I see in tonight's sky?

SnapCosmos combines your location, the local weather forecast and precise astronomical calculations to tell you what's actually visible tonight — the Moon, bright planets, the ISS, meteor showers in season, and how dark and clear the sky will be.

Do I need an account or an app?

No. SnapCosmos runs entirely in your browser. Share your location once and every page tailors itself to your night sky. Nothing is stored on our servers.

How accurate is the forecast?

Astronomy — Moon phase, planet positions, twilight times — is calculated to the minute. Weather comes from Open-Meteo's high-resolution model and is refreshed hourly. Aurora and space-weather data comes from NOAA SWPC.

Which locations does it work for?

Any location on Earth. Enter a city or coordinates, or share your GPS. All times, twilight, Moon and planet visibility adjust to your latitude, longitude and time zone automatically.

Tonight

What's in the sky tonight?

SnapCosmos answers one question: is tonight worth going outside? It scores the night from live cloud cover, astronomical darkness, Moon interference and what is actually above your horizon — then gives you a single Go, Wait or Skip.

Moon tonight: 7%
Active showers: None
Sources: 5
Verdict: Go / Wait / Skip

Location not set

Set your location for tonight's verdict

Cloud cover, darkness and altitude are different in every valley on Earth, so SnapCosmos does not guess a city for you. Pick one and the whole page recalculates.

Cloud cover hour by hour across the dark window
When astronomical darkness starts and ends
Moon interference and how high your targets climb
A single Go, Wait or Skip verdict with confidence

Your choice stays in this browser. Nothing is sent to a SnapCosmos server.

What decides the answer

Cloud cover during the dark hours: Not the daily average — the hourly forecast across the window when the sky is actually dark. A clear afternoon and an overcast midnight are a bad night.
How dark it really gets: Astronomical darkness needs the Sun 18° below the horizon. Above roughly 49° latitude that never happens in midsummer, so the best available sky is nautical twilight.
The Moon: Phase and how long it is above your horizon. A gibbous Moon erases the Milky Way and faint meteors but leaves planets and the Moon itself excellent.
What is above the horizon: Planet and radiant altitude depend on your latitude and the hour. Something 5° up is behind trees and thick air; the same object at 40° is a different night.

What SnapCosmos checks every night

Explore more

A trusted companion for the night sky

SnapCosmos is built around one question: is tonight worth going outside? For your exact location, we combine live weather, precise astronomy and geomagnetic data into a single honest verdict — plus everything you need to plan the night: the Moon phase and rise/set times, which planets are visible, upcoming ISS passes, active meteor showers, the aurora forecast and the exact minute true darkness begins.

No accounts, no tracking, no clutter. Just clear answers for anyone who has ever wondered whether it's worth stepping outside tonight.

Location not set

Get tonight's answer for where you actually are

Cloud cover, darkness, altitude and the Go/Skip verdict all depend on your exact spot on Earth, so SnapCosmos does not guess one.

Cloud cover hour by hour across the dark window
When astronomical darkness starts and ends
Moon interference and how high your targets climb
A single Go, Wait or Skip verdict with confidence

Your choice stays in this browser. Nothing is sent to a SnapCosmos server.

Why we are different

Most sky sites answer "what are the conditions". We answer "should I go".

The difference is not the data — everyone can fetch a forecast. It is what happens after the data arrives.

A conventional sky-conditions site compared with the SnapCosmos Night Engine
A typical sky site	SnapCosmos
Shows the weather forecast	Turns it into one instruction: go, wait or skip
Shows the Moon phase	Explains what that phase actually costs you tonight
Shows cloud cover	Ranks tonight against ten years of nights at your coordinates
Shows tonight	Compares tonight with the next seven nights and names the better one
Generic for everyone	Weighted by what you came to see, and how far you will drive
States conditions	States a confidence percentage and what would change it
No published accuracy	Publishes its measured agreement, goal by goal, including where it is weak

Where these numbers come from

Everything on this page is computed live for the location you set — nothing is cached copy or hand-written seasonal text. The engine that turns these inputs into one recommendation is documented, versioned andmachine-readable.

Hourly cloud cover, precipitation, humidity and visibility forecastsOpen-Meteo forecast and archive APIOpen-Meteo
Ten-year cloud-cover climatology and historical night rankingERA5 reanalysisECMWF / Copernicus Climate Change Service
Sun, Moon and planet positions, rise and set times, twilight phasesAstronomy Engine (VSOP87 / ELP2000 series)Don Cross, after the IMCCE and JPL analytical theories
ISS orbital elements (TLE), propagated locally with SGP4CelesTrak / NORAD two-line elementsCelesTrak, from US Space Force tracking data
Geomagnetic activity (Kp) and aurora forecastingSpace Weather Prediction CenterNOAA

Figures on this page last recomputed 2026-09-08.

Everything else in the sky tonight

Every SnapCosmos page is computed live for your exact location. Follow any card for a full, honest read on that part of the sky.