🔭 Grand Canyon — Night of November 9, 2026

Verdict: A flawless night. Viewing quality is a perfect 100, and the sky is yours.

🌡️ Hour-by-Hour Conditions (MST)

The night starts crisp and only gets better:

• 19:00 — 8.1°C, just 7% cloud cover, light breeze (0.8 m/s). Skies already wide open.
• 20:00 — 6.4°C, 10% clouds — the only slightly "cloudiest" moment, still trivially clear.
• 21:00 — 5.9°C, clouds drop to 8%, wind easing to 0.5 m/s.
• 22:00 — 5.4°C, 5% clouds, wind nearly gone (0.3 m/s).
• 23:00 — 5.0°C, 3% clouds, dead calm (0.0 m/s). This is your peak stability window.
• 00:00 — 4.7°C, 4% clouds, still calm.
• 01:00 — 4.4°C, 6% clouds, calm. The night ends as clean as it began.

Every single hour is flagged as good: zero precipitation, zero fog, 16 km visibility. Expect temperatures to fall steadily from 8°C to ~4°C — dress warm, but the thermal stability and windless conditions after 23:00 will reward you with rock-steady views.

🌙 The Moon — Your Best Friend Tonight

A Waning Crescent at only 8.5% illumination, and it set at 17:24 — well before darkness falls. That means moon-free skies all night long, perfect for faint fuzzies. Combined with Bortle 2 skies at the Canyon, you have textbook dark-sky conditions.

🪐 Planets

• Saturn (mag 0.57) — High in the south, transiting at 21:45. Catch it right around 21:30–22:00 for the steadiest, highest view. Rings will be stunning at this altitude.
• Uranus (mag 5.59) — A challenge object, transiting at 01:18. At Bortle 2 with a telescope, try to split its tiny greenish disk — tonight is a great night for it.

✨ Recommended Targets

With the Milky Way overhead and no moon, go deep:

• M45 (Pleiades) — Mag 1.6. A naked-eye jewel, spectacular in binoculars.
• M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) — Mag 3.4. The grand spiral; with dark skies, trace its dust lanes in a scope.
• M42 (Orion Nebula) — Mag 4.0. Rising later — save it for after midnight when it climbs higher.
• M33 (Triangulum Galaxy) — Mag 5.7. A low-surface-brightness test object; tonight's moonless, Bortle 2 sky is exactly what it needs.
• M39, M34, M35, M41, M47, M48 — A rich collection of open clusters scattered across the autumn/winter sky, all easy wins in any scope.

💡 Pro Tip

The 23:00–01:00 window is your sweet spot: zero wind, minimal clouds, and Saturn still high while Orion begins to rise. Set up early, let your optics acclimate to the falling temperature, and enjoy one of the best sky conditions the Grand Canyon can offer.

Clear skies! 🌌