🌌 Tonight’s Cosmic Forecast: Grand Canyon — June 26, 2026

The heavens have aligned for you. With a Bortle 2 sky (near pristine darkness) and perfect viewing quality (100%), tonight at Grand Canyon is an astronomer’s dream. Let’s walk through the night hour by hour.

⏳ Hourly Weather Evolution

Conditions are stable and nearly flawless all night:

• 21:00 – Sunset glow fades; 20.8°C, just 5% clouds, light breeze 12 km/h. Absolutely clear start.
• 22:00 – Temperature drops to 19.6°C, clouds barely tick up to 6%. Wind eases to 11 km/h. The sky is a crystal dome.
• 23:00 – 18.4°C, clouds at 7% — still negligible. Wind now 9.5 km/h, calm and steady.
• 00:00 (midnight) – 17.6°C, clouds hold at 7%. No fog, no precipitation. Visibility remains 16 km. Perfect transparency.
• 01:00 – Coolest at 16.8°C, clouds still only 7%, wind 9.5 km/h. The session can stretch deep into the night without interruption.

Bottom line: No cloud build-up, no wind gusts, no fog — just a slow, gentle cooling under a pristine sky.

🌙 Moon & Planets

• Moon (Waxing Gibbous, 93% illuminated) rises at 17:29 and sets at 02:21 the next morning. It’s bright, but its light will be manageable with a Bortle 2 sky. It transits at 22:13 — so early evening will be moonlit, but after midnight the moon sinks lower and the sky darkens further.
• Venus (magnitude -3.97) is visible low in the western sky after sunset. It won’t transit until the next afternoon, so catch it early before it sets.

🔭 Recommended Targets Tonight

With such a dark sky, every object shines. Here are my top picks from your data:

💡 Pro Tip

Since the Moon is bright early, start with bright open clusters (M6, M7, M24) and the globular M5 in the west before moonrise is high. After midnight, when the moon sets (02:21), go deep with M13, M22, and M31. The ISS passed earlier, but tonight it’s all about deep sky glory.

Get out there — Grand Canyon gives you a front-row seat to the universe. Clear skies! 🔭✨