Conditions on this page are recalculated from the latest forecast every time it is opened, for the current date in the location's own time zone. Showing .
Illumination percentage is the number everyone quotes and the one that misleads most often. A 98 percent moon that rises at four in the morning is worthless for an evening plan, and a 40 percent crescent sitting high in a clear sky at nine in the evening will outperform it every time. This page therefore pairs phase and illumination with the two facts that actually decide visibility: when the moon is above the horizon at your location, and how much cloud is forecast during that window. You get tonight's phase name and illumination, precise moonrise and moonset times in the destination's local timezone, peak altitude, and an hour-by-hour cloud-cover forecast overlaid on the window when the moon is up. The full synodic cycle ahead is listed so you can find the next new moon for dark-sky work or the next full moon for a moonrise composition. For photographers, low illumination is an advantage rather than a problem: a half moon shows dramatic crater shadows along the terminator that a full moon flattens completely, and a thin crescent in blue-hour twilight is far easier to expose against a still-bright sky. For star gazers, the useful reading is inverted — you want the moon below the horizon, and the page tells you exactly which hours qualify. Solar and lunar positions are calculated in the target location's timezone, not your browser's.
Scores are capped by dealbreakers — heavy rain, dangerous wind, thick fog or hazardous UV pull a day down no matter how pleasant the rest of the numbers look. Forecast data is Open-Meteo; solar and lunar values are computed for this location's own coordinates and time zone. Full details on the methodology page.