🏔️ Mauna Kea – Tonight's Astronomical Insight (June 14, 2026)

What a shame – the Bortle 2 skies above Mauna Kea are among the best on Earth, but tonight the weather is thoroughly uncooperative. Still, let's break it down hour by hour so you know exactly what's happening.

🌤️ Hourly Weather Evolution

The evening starts brutally: - 20:00–21:00 HST – 100% cloud cover, 92% precipitation chance, visibility just 0.08 km, fog at 99%. A complete washout. - 21:00–22:00 – Clouds drop slightly to 97%, but precipitation remains high (67%), fog still thick (98.8%). No improvement. - 22:00–23:00 – 94% clouds, precipitation down to 43%, fog still clinging at 94%. Visibility improves to 0.6 km – still terrible. - 23:00–00:00 – Clouds still 91%, but precipitation falls to 18%, fog begins to lift (79%), visibility jumps to 2 km. A glimmer of hope. - 00:00–01:00 – Clouds stubborn at 92%, but fog disappears completely (0%), visibility soars to 16 km! Precipitation drops to 13% – almost acceptable except for the cloud cover. - 01:00 onwards – Still 92% cloud cover. The sky remains stubbornly overcast.

Temperature: Hovers around 10°C (50°F) all night, dropping just 1°C. Wind is light (0.5–1.5 m/s), so no wind chill issues.

🌙 Moon Phase & Planets

• Moon: A delicate Waning Crescent just 2% illuminated – basically new! It set at 18:00 on June 13, so it's absent all night, offering perfectly dark skies… if only the clouds would part.
• Visible Planets: Jupiter (–1.69 mag) and Venus (–3.93 mag) both transited during the afternoon (~14:42 and 15:06). They're below the horizon by evening, so no planets are visible tonight. The only potential celestial sight would be the ISS – but the one bright pass happened at 04:43 this morning, not tonight.

🔭 What Would Be Visible If Clear

Under these pristine Bortle 2 conditions, you'd have a feast of deep-sky objects. The recommended Messier list is a globular-cluster lover's dream:

All of these would be easy targets even with binoculars from Mauna Kea's elevation. But…

💡 The Verdict

Observing tonight is unfortunately not viable. The cloud cover stays above 90% all night, and moisture (precipitation/fog) only slowly recedes. The best chance – and it's slim – would be between 01:00 and 02:00 if clouds thin further. Check the weather radar or see if any gaps appear. If you're desperate, set up for a quick peek at M13 (almost overhead in summer) or M7 (low in the south) – both can be spotted even through thin cloud if the transparency improves.

On the bright side: this is a new Moon week, so the next few nights could be spectacular if the weather clears. Keep an eye on the summit forecast – Mauna Kea's weather can shift quickly! 🌌