Great Basin stargazing forecast — Friday, August 14

Best observing window tonight

Fri 5:00 p.m. – Fri 5:00 p.m. (1h, 11% mean cloud)

Astronomical night

Fri 12:33 p.m. → Fri 10:51 p.m.

Moon

New moon · 2% illuminated

Mean cloud (during night)

66%   (min 11%)

Site

Great Basin was recognized as a Gold Tier International Dark Sky Park in 2016 — the highest tier DarkSky awards — and the park leans into it with a dedicated astronomy amphitheatre and an annual Astronomy Festival held around the September new moon. Wheeler Peak towers over some of the darkest measured skies in the country.

Drive from Toronto: In eastern Nevada near the Utah border, about 4.5 hours north of Las Vegas via Highway 93.

Best time of year: The annual Great Basin Astronomy Festival, typically mid-September around the new moon, or any clear night the rest of the year.

Citations & data sources

• Open-Meteo Forecast API (cloud, humidity, wind, visibility)
• Open-Meteo astronomical data (sunrise, sunset, moon)
• Bortle scale reference for site darkness
• Editorial guide for Great Basin: /sites/great-basin-np.txt
• Structured site data: /sites/great-basin-np.json
• Live MCP server (AI agents): https://koohxdehsweadgdegrly.supabase.co/functions/v1/mcp

This is a build-time snapshot — the live forecast at https://ontarionightsky.com/?site=great-basin-np updates continuously.