There are many reasons one may want to plan an observing session in advance. Limited time, limited object visibility, making the most of your night out, astrophotography, etc.

Weather & Sky Quality Forecasting

• Clear Sky Charts for Ohio

• Light Pollution Map

• National Weather Service - Wilmington, OH office

• Ventusky (weather models and current conditions)

• Astrospheric (mobile app available)

Sky Charts (browser-based)

• Stellarium (Browser Version)

• The Sky Live

• In-The-Sky.org

Planetarium Apps for PC / Mac / Linux

• Stellarium

• Cartes du Ciel (SkyChart)

• KStars

Mobile Planetarium Apps

• Stellarium - Android / iOS

• SkySafari - Android / iOS

• Sky Map - Android

Meteor Shower Calendar

Weekly information about bright comets

Aurora Forecast

Satellite Tracking & Forecasts

• SOHO (Observing the Sun 24/7)

• Hubble

• Spitzer (Infrared Telescope)

• Chandra (X-Ray telescope)

• James Webb Space Telescope

Astronomy Tools
Online tools to perform a variety of calculations for telescope and astrophotography hardware, and more.

Glossary of Astronomy Terms