Tonight over the Space Coast
Reading your place and the clock.
DARKNESS
Sunset, full dark and dawn for your place, once it is read.
"Dark enough for stars" is the end of astronomical twilight, the Sun 18 degrees down. Planets and the ISS show well before that.
THE MOON
Phase, rise and set, and what its light does to the night.
PLANETS
Which are up, where to look, when they rise or set.
A planet is a steady point; a star low in the sky twinkles. Positions to about a degree, which is a finger's width at arm's length.
PASSES
The ISS, and any Starlink train from a recent launch, over your place.
A pass counts when the satellite is above 10 degrees, in sunlight, over a sky past civil twilight. Elements from CelesTrak, refreshed every six hours.
THIS WEEK
Meteor showers near their peak, and the Moon's effect on them.
Shower dates: the International Meteor Organization's calendar.
LAUNCHES TONIGHT
A launch within sight of your place tonight, with the time and the distance.
Saw something and want to know what it was? What was that? takes where you were, when, and what it looked like, and answers from the sky at that minute.
Times are US Eastern, with your own clock beside them when it differs. The Sun and Moon follow the Astronomical Almanac's formulae, the planets JPL's approximate elements, satellites CelesTrak's elements through SGP4; each is held to known events at every build. A rule of thumb, not a promise: weather is the other half.