I’ve included a brief description for each app from the author, and you can click the app name for more information about each one. Sky Quality: 19.86 Magnitude.Class 5 Bortle.1.23 mcd/m 2 Brightness.

water vapor content of the air. (Local time for Alpha Ridge Park is -5.0 hours from GMT.). Where this app really shines is with the satellite imagery. August 1, 2018, By: Camille M. Carlisle CIVIL is intended for civil users. I originally had the SAM Console astronomy app on this list, but opted to leave it out because it is a little too specific (to Star Adventurer owners). AccuWeather is one particularly handy source for private weather forecasts.

It’s a simple app that does its job. To do this, you must know exactly where and when the event will happen, and this app can help you plan for that moment. Bad seeing can occur during perfectly clear weather. Frequent hourly updates are important because often the clear spell between showers provides excellent seeing and 30-minutes under a clear sky with a grab-&-go telescope is pure gold!”.

But there are ways All of which can reduce dewing. Pac., 123, 113, and references therein. The "seeing" is the term used in astronomy to quantify the steadiness or the turbulence of the atmosphere. All rights reserved. The forecasts cover North America and are produced by the numerical weather prediction models that execute at the Canadian Meteorological Centre.The following forecast parameters are available in real time: forecasts of cloud, surface winds, temperatures and humidity as well as more specific parameters such as seeing forecasts and sky transparency. You can find the closest chart site to a latitude/longitude

The NAM is much more precise, but runs only four days in advance. Would you like to overwrite it? left to right: <0.5", 0.5"-0.75", 0.75"-1", 1"-1.25", 1.25"-1.5", output – should be internal (for graphical output), xml or json. You may wish to try W3C geolocation method for higher usability and accuracy; however, W3C geolocation only works in Firefox 3.5+, Google Chrome, Opera 10.6+, Internet Explorer 9.0+, and Safari 5+. The data comes a forecast model developed by Allan Rahill of the Sky & Telescope, Night Sky, and skyandtelescope.org are registered trademarks of AAS Sky Publishing LLC. “Reliable weather forecasts for astronomers with an emphasis on cloud cover. Is it worth staying up tonight, or will clouds mar your view? I can generate charts for almost In this post, I’ve rounded up a list of useful astronomy apps for your mobile phone or tablet. The application tracks and draws the position of the Polaris (or Octant) in real-time and also displays its hour-angle, the local sidereal time, current local time and the longitude of the place.”. seeing condition is. In my experience, they're a bit more accurate three or more days out than NWS. ), “ISS Detector will tell you when and where to look for the ISS. Cloud forecastCloud forecasts at hourly intervals up to 48 hours.These forecasts can be interpreted in the same way as satellite pictures in the visible spectrum.

It looks like one of the best astronomy apps for ISS tracking. The coverage area is Canada, USA and parts of Mexico.

A more detailed explanation is here, but the short version is: the clear sky chart predicts hourly cloud cover, atmospheric transparency and seeing. It can be a chore to find the one you want.

Seeing the northern lights can be an exhilarating experience, and can be very rare depending on your location. Clear Outside has been my go-to resource for the most accurate (and sometimes depressing) astronomy weather forecast for the night. January 1, 2010 But dewing is not simply correlated to relative humidity. Astronomers evaluate sky transparency based on the magnitude of the faintest star visible to the unaided eye. Default geolocation method is GeoIP, meaning by default your current location will be derived by the IP address of your device. over 95%. and ground seeing mimic true atmospheric seeing. Seeing is forecast for 3-hour blocks, so triples of seeing blocks will show the same color. Feel free to copy There was one that is neat to play around with that you did not list called Planet Finder.

For details of the forecast method, see Publ. If you find this clear sky chart, or CMC maps linked by the colored blocks, You can watch developing cloud patterns and movement. If you find this image, or the underlying forecast maps, useful please email Allan Rahill.

Seeing forecastSeeing forecasts at 3-hourly intervals up to 48 hours. The colors of the blocks are the colors from CMC's forecast maps for that hour. Forecast for FLO HQ, Exeter, Devon, UK (50.70,-3.52) Est. It is unique in offering a comparison of the widely available forecasts from the United States GFS global model with higher resolution forecasts from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology ACCESS model.

A forecast color of white formally means that CMC didn't compute the transparency forecast because the cloud cover was over 30%. air. NightShift is one of my favorite new astronomy apps (Android only).

; to Li Zuqiang and Dr. Johnson Lau who had been extensively involved in the development of data reduction scripts; to Shi Liaoshan who help testing every new releases; to littlePig and Max who had given help on starting code works of Google Maps API; as well as to numerous people who have contributed helpful suggestions and encouragements.

with an instrument smaller than 11 inches.

It gives me the position of Polaris for my location, and I just need to replicate the view through my telescope mount. The goal of this post is not to rate the apps against each other, but to provide a useful resource for amateur astronomy enthusiasts. Read from left to right. Due to the evolving nature of mobile apps and the sheer number of new astronomy apps popping up each day, I have not used all of these astronomy apps personally. I have also included the publisher of the app, category, and description of the application so you can get an idea of what to expect before downloading it. It's always worth checking a general weather forecast as well, both as a cross-check for the astronomy-specific stargazing forecast and to include conditions such as wind speed that are important to astronomers but not included in the CMC astronomy forecasts. The best astronomy app for you will likely be something that works especially well on your operating system, and that fits your specific needs.

A more detailed explanation is 0.7-0.85, 0.85-1, >1 (unit: mag per air mass). Makes it a doddle to set up my Sky Watcher and keep it aligned all night. It provides a cloud cover forecast. Being on a hilltop or in a small valley can make the difference between no dew and dripping telescopes. That's when the sky will likely to be clear and dark.

Generated: 07/11/20 23:54:56. Since there are many different levels in this forecast, with similar looking colors, it's best to activate the humidity forecast does not have the spatial resolution to know about small hills, valleys, or observatory walls. As stated in the description, this app is currently only useful to North American users.

It will display the forecasted weather condition for the next 9-16 days with a set of easy-to-read weather icons. Too bad “The Moon” is yearly subscription based. I've chosen colors Two-Week-Overview (TWO) is intended for civil users. Description: “Reliable weather forecasts for astronomers with an emphasis on cloud cover.

A good trick to check the necessarity of this function is to compare the forecasted and the actual temperature. A digit 1 on top of a 3 means 13:00 or 1pm. Explanations of each icon, as well as the definition of values returned by machine-readable API, are given below.

This is invalueablely FANTASTIC(sorry,can't underline as yet), you guys at Sky and Telescope are working way too hard. All modern weather forecasts are based on models running inside supercomputers at the various national weather centers. The GFS covers the entire planet and runs two weeks in advance, but its model is fairly crude. Please be aware that the forecast is highly uncertain given to the large leading time of TWO. Just be aware that weather forecasting is as challenging as in the stock market – so using these data is at your own risk.