Free to start.
$4.99/mo for serious planning.
Secure Stripe checkout. Cancel anytime.
Live data, not a stale snapshot
Some sky apps publish a forecast once and leave you planning a night that has already changed. Darkest Hour re-runs the current provider feeds on every check — MET Norway weather, NOAA space weather, current orbital elements — and labels each provider and update time on the card, so the verdict you see is the sky as it is now, with its uncertainty attached.
Free
- — Dark-sky map
- — One-spot tonight check
- — Bortle/SQM context
- — Cloud and moon checks
Pro Monthly
- — Everything in Free
- — Top 3 nearby site comparison
- — Best-night-this-week scan
- — Clear-Window Finder
- — Cancel anytime
Pro Annual
- — Everything in Monthly
- — Season-long planning
- — Milky Way and aurora briefs
- — Alert beta priority
Decide before you pay
Not sure tonight is worth the drive? Check tonight free first, then come back if the Pro planner matters.
Beta concierge fallback
Ask before paying. Send your nearest town, target night and max drive radius and we will sanity-check whether Pro is likely to help before you start Stripe checkout.
Ask before payingThe decision engine,
not just a sky dashboard.
How the verdict is built
The tonight check scores your exact coordinates from live provider feeds — cloud cover (30% weight), darkness (22%), moon phase and window (18%), transparency (18%), seeing (12%), minus a drive penalty — and labels every input's source and update time. A single number, with the uncertainty attached instead of hidden.
What Pro adds
Free covers one spot. Pro compares your top three nearby sites against the same live forecasts, scans the week for the best night, finds clear windows, and exports a session brief — so the answer is "this site, that night", not just "tonight, maybe".
Editorial note
Written and reviewed by Sam, founding editor of Darkest Hour. Pricing is shown in USD and processed by Stripe — we never see your card details. Live inputs: MET Norway (weather, CC-BY 4.0), NOAA SWPC (space weather), current orbital elements (satellites); darkness values are modelled estimates, not satellite-measured data. Editorial standards. Last reviewed 17 Aug 2026.
The Pro night-sky planner is the primary paid product. Paid PDF guides are companion resources, not the main paid product.
Stripe handles card details — we never see them. Cancel anytime from your dashboard.
Pro subscriptions are refundable within 14 days — see the refund policy.