Night Sky Alert
Star trails circling the celestial pole above a volcano, crossed by the straight line of a space station pass
Tonight in Palo Alto, California · More in United States →
57 OUT OF 100

Worth a look

Palo Alto night sky · Fri, Oct 16, dark 7:26 PM–6:21 AM PDT
Clouds
0%average tonight
Moon
36%Waxing Crescent
Aurora
Kp 2.0need Kp 9
Space station
5:11 AM53° high · SW→NE
  • Aurora unlikely. Tonight's forecast peaks at Kp 2.0. From here you'd usually need about Kp 9, which takes a rare, extreme storm.
  • Space station passes at 5:11 AM, up to 53° high, moving SW → NE. It looks like a bright, steady star that crosses the sky in a few minutes.
  • Moon 36% lit (Waxing Crescent), above the horizon for 32% of the dark hours.
  • Clouds: about 0% effective cover during dark hours, so mostly clear.

Updated just now. Times in America/Los Angeles (PDT).

Photo: Benedikt Markus · CC BY-SA 4.0

Clouds tonight
2:00 AMclouds, % of sky7:00 AM
Aurora reach
Kp 9 needed
Magnetic latitude 43.1° N. Look north. Tonight's forecast peak: Kp 2.0. Live map →
Moon
36% lit
Waxing Crescent. Up for 32% of dark hours.
Next meteor peak
Orionids
Peak night Oct 21–22 · Moon 82% lit

Next visible space station passes

When (PDT)HighestPath
Sat, Oct 17, 5:08 AM53°SW → NE
Sat, Oct 17, 6:45 AM20°W → N

Visible passes only: station sunlit, your sky dark. Computed from CelesTrak orbital data.

Launches within view

LaunchWhen (PDT)Distance
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 15-15Tue, Oct 20, 3:14 PM212 mi
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 15-16Fri, Oct 23, 10:29 PM212 mi
Falcon 9 Block 5 | SDA Tranche 2 Transport Layer EWed, Dec 30, 4:00 PM212 mi
Falcon 9 Block 5 | SDA Tranche 1 Tracking Layer AWed, Dec 30, 4:00 PM212 mi

Launches within 621 mi in the coming days. Night and twilight launches are the ones to watch. Data: The Space Devs.

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Nearby

Palo Alto, California, United States · 37.44°, -122.14° · population 66,853 (GeoNames). The score is an estimate; here's how it's made.