Kartchner Caverns stargazing forecast — Friday, August 14

Southern AZ · Bortle 3 · 31.837, -110.349 · Snapshot generated Sat, 15 Aug 2026 02:05:07 GMT

Excellent (High confidence)

10h of clear sky (≤30% cloud) during tonight's astronomical night, mean cloud 0%.

Best observing window tonight

Fri 1:00 p.m. – Fri 10:00 p.m. (10h, 0% mean cloud)

Astronomical night: Fri 12:06 p.m. → Fri 10:46 p.m.
Moon: New moon · 2% illuminated
Mean cloud (during night): 0% (min 0%)

Site

Kartchner Caverns is best known for its living limestone caves, but above ground it's also an International Dark Sky Park that hosts regular Star Nights with local astronomy clubs in the foothills of the Whetstone Mountains.

Drive from Toronto: Fly into Tucson, then drive about 45 minutes southeast to the park near Benson, AZ.

Best time of year: New-moon nights, especially during scheduled Star Party events.

Open the live 48-hour forecast →

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 Kartchner Caverns: /sites/kartchner-caverns-sp.txt
Structured site data: /sites/kartchner-caverns-sp.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=kartchner-caverns-sp updates continuously.