Stargazing weather

Stargazing and the weather go hand in hand. If you spend anytime outdoors, you are going to want to dress appropriately. Plus, you want to know if and when the clouds are going to roll in. If they do, then it may not even worth heading out.

If you live in the US, then finding information on what the sensible weather will be for stargazing is easy. Simply head over to the National Weather Service website and find your local office by clicking on their national map. You can obtain hourly information on temperature and dewpoints for any location. And, you can find wind and humidity forecasts for each hour. Most local office NWS websites also have what is known as an "Activity Planner" where you can enter the meteorological parameters that you are looking for, and the planner returns the information in an hourly format.

Another good site for observing information is the ClearDarkSky.com. Here are the current "Clear Sky Clock conditions for Charleston, West Virginia area:



The white boxes indicate poor observing conditions (cloudy skies) and the blue boxes indicate clear skies. The time are in local time. ClearDarkSky is the place to check if you want to a really quick forecast.