CycleCalcs Astronomy

The genuinely dark, moonless observing window for a night: astronomical night intersected with the Moon being down, ranked across up to 62 nights with a trend. The right tool for "when should I stargaze / photograph the Milky Way / observe deep-sky objects". Location required. For plain twilight times use astro_sun; for whether tonight's clouds allow it, use observing_windows.

Solar and lunar eclipses: the next or previous from a date, or all in a range, with type, magnitude, obscuration, Saros series and global geometry. A solar eclipse also carries a computed hybrid flag and, when central, the duration, path width and Sun altitude at greatest eclipse. With a location it adds local circumstances, contact times, and an explicit visible-from-here answer; set visible_only to true to keep only eclipses visible there. include adds the precomputed central path or the circumstances at greatest local eclipse. NOTE: count applies per type, so count=3 with type "both" can return six events.

Resolve a place name to coordinates, region, country, IANA timezone and a stable place_id, or reverse-look-up the nearest places to a lat/lon. Results are GeoNames data (CC BY 4.0); the response carries the required credit in its attribution field, which must be preserved when results are shown. Note the other tools accept a place argument directly, so this is only needed to disambiguate a name, filter by country, or reverse-geocode.

The Moon at an instant or as a daily series: phase name and angle, illuminated fraction, distance, apparent size, libration, bright limb, and the next quarter phases. A location adds rise/set and altitude. For a calendar of new and full moons use astro_moon_phases; for the Moon's exact coordinates use astro_positions.

Every new moon, quarter and full moon in a window (or the next few from a date): each with its exact instant, distance, apparent size, supermoon classification under both competing definitions, traditional full-moon name, and any eclipse falling on it. Use for "when is the next full moon" and phase calendars. For the Moon's state right now use astro_moon.

All eight planets in one call for a date and optional location: constellation, magnitude, apparent size, elongation from the Sun, morning or evening sky, retrograde state with the next station, rise/set, and a worth-looking-tonight assessment. The right tool for "which planets are visible tonight". For exact coordinates of specific bodies use astro_positions.

Dated planet events. For Mercury and Venus, the apparition cycle: inferior and superior conjunctions, greatest eastern and western elongations, peak brightness (a Venus-only event: Mercury's brightness peaks behind the Sun where it cannot be seen), and the rare transits across the Sun; with no dates it also reports where each is in its cycle right now: morning star or evening star, the conjunctions bounding the current apparition, and the live elongation, phase, magnitude and apparent size. For Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune: conjunction with the Sun, western quadrature, opposition and eastern quadrature, the instants the planet's apparent geocentric ecliptic longitude minus the Sun's reaches 0, 270, 180 and 90 deg, each with the planet's constellation, distance, magnitude and elongation. For any of the seven, constellation_entry, returned only when listed in kinds: each crossing of an IAU constellation boundary, with the two constellations and the direction of motion. The right tool for "when does Venus become the morning star", "when is Mars at opposition", or "when does Uranus cross from Taurus into Gemini". For tonight's visibility of all eight planets use astro_planet_board. Mercury and Venus conjunction instants use the classical heliocentric convention, named on each event.

Exact positions for up to 20 bodies at an instant or over a time grid: right ascension and declination in both J2000 and of-date frames, ecliptic longitude and latitude, distance, and, with a location, altitude and azimuth with refraction stated per field. With a location the position is topocentric, but tropical_sign and constellation stay geocentric, and meta.conventions.label_origin says so. Use for "where exactly is X". Do not pass earth. For rise and set TIMES use astro_rise_set; for a visibility overview of all planets use astro_planet_board.

Rise, upper transit, set and lower transit for one body at one location, with an explicit status at extreme latitudes (circumpolar, never rises) instead of missing values. Accepts fixed radec targets. For the Sun specifically, astro_sun returns richer twilight structure; for positions between events use astro_positions.

One-call snapshot of the whole sky for a place and moment: moon phase and illumination, which planets are up and worth looking at, the next eclipse, and (with a location) sun times. Reach for this first when the question is broad, like "what is in the sky tonight". For solar-day detail use astro_sun; for choosing an observing night use astro_dark_window, and for whether tonight's clouds allow it use observing_windows; for one planet's exact position use astro_positions.

The complete solar day for one location: sunrise, sunset, solar noon, day length, civil, nautical and astronomical twilight boundaries, and explicit polar day/night status at high latitudes. Location required. For a series, send start and end (step is whole days, e.g. "1d" or "7d"). For "is it dark enough to observe" prefer astro_dark_window; for a broad snapshot prefer astro_sky_today.

Is tonight good for observing here, and when? The clear, dark windows of tonight, and of the next nights the hourly cloud forecast covers, for one place: astronomical night with the Moon down (or up, with moon "any"), under the MET Norway cloud forecast. The windows are the ones the CycleCalcs Observing Planner widget draws, and the rule below decides which count; the answer is the /api/observing-windows feed's. Returns summary (tonight in one sentence on the place's clock), go_tonight (true when tonight has a window that passes the rule), next (the first window ahead that passes, with start, end, minutes and starts_in_minutes), tonight and later. Give lat, lon and tz, or a place name; lat and lon are rounded to two decimals (about 1 km), the precision of the forecast. The right tool for "is it clear enough to stargaze tonight" or "when should I set up the telescope". For the moonless dark alone, without weather, or for nights past the forecast, use astro_dark_window.