🌌 Tonight's Sky Over New York — September 24, 2026

The headline: A nearly full Moon (97% illuminated, just days from Full) will dominate the sky, while a stubborn deck of clouds slowly thins toward midnight — then rolls back in. Saturn is your planetary showpiece, and there's an ISS flyby to catch before the evening even gets going.

🌤 Hour-by-Hour Conditions

The night starts cloudy and stays marginal, but there's a sweet spot if you're patient:

Trend: Clouds bottom out around 11 PM at 53% — still above your 40% comfort threshold, but the most transparent skies of the night. Temperatures fall steadily from ~19°C to ~16.6°C (bring a light jacket), while winds stay gentle and slowly rise from 6.6 to 7.1 km/h. No precipitation and 16 km visibility throughout — the issue is purely cloud cover, not transparency.

🔭 What to Chase

🛰 7:46 PM — Bright ISS Flyby! Don't miss this one. It happens before the main window, so step out early and watch the station glide across the sky.

🪐 Saturn (mag 0.34) — The night's true gem. Transits at 1:26 AM, riding high in the sky. Even through broken clouds, its rings will be unmistakable. Catch it in the 11 PM–midnight window when the sky is thinnest.

🌕 The Moon — Waxing Gibbous, rising at 5:50 PM and up all night. At 97% lit, it's a brilliant target for lunar observing along the terminator, but it will wash out faint deep-sky objects.

⭐ Best Messier targets under Bortle 9 skies + moonlight: Stick to the bright end of the catalog: - M45 (Pleiades, mag 1.6) — rising later; a stunning open cluster even from the city - M31 (Andromeda Galaxy, mag 3.4) — the brightest galaxy in the northern sky - M13 (Hercules Cluster, mag 5.8) and M22 (mag 5.1) — bright globulars that can punch through light pollution

Uranus (mag 5.65) transits at 4:52 AM — technically up, but between the moonlight and Bortle 9, you'll need good optics and patience to split it from the stars.

Bottom line: Set up around 11 PM for the clearest skies, target Saturn first, then swing to M31 and the Pleiades. And don't forget that 7:46 PM ISS pass — it might be the brightest thing you see all night! 🔭✨