Planning a Night of Observing
How to plan a night under the stars with the observatory suite — finding the dark hours, tracking the Moon and planets, choosing targets at their highest, and matching them to your gear. Built on the platform's real computed sky data; observing conditions come only from connected providers.
Related entities
- Observing planner
Tonight Planner
What is worth observing tonight from a given place, drawn together from the platform's computed twilight, Moon, and planet positions. The plan updates with the observer's clock and location, which stay on the device.
- Observing planner
Moon Planner
The Moon's phase, illumination, and rise and set for a chosen night — the single biggest factor in deep-sky observing. Computed, not assumed.
- Observing planner
Session Planner
Assembles a full observing session — an ordered list of targets timed to their best moments through a single night — from the visibility, altitude, and darkness plans. Exportable as a calendar or a printable plan.
- Observing integration
Bortle Sky-Brightness Integration
An architecture-ready interface for light-pollution and Bortle-class sky-brightness data by location — which sets how faint an object a site can reach. Wired into the deep-sky planner; a site's darkness is reported only from a connected light-pollution source.