The indexnightdatable to the day
Milky Way core — 21:10 to 22:30
Fires when new-moon dark meets 0% forecast cloud and core above 20 degrees for 1.3 hours
Photograph Openverse contributor · CC0 1.0
September, peaking September. The notch is October.
Next: Sunday, September 13 — 0 days away, keyed to the published start time
This week: watch — new-moon dark meets 0% forecast cloud and core above 20 degrees for 1.3 hours. Leave by 7:09pm.
- Where
- Kissimmee Prairie Preserve — the darkest sky in the peninsula
- Drive
- 101 minutes from Lakeland
- In season
- September
- Peak
- September
- Certainty
- datable to the day
- Drone
- no — state park
- Glass
- 14–24mm at f/1.8 or faster, 15-20s at wide aperture, ISO 3200-6400, focus stacked foreground optional, on a tripod
From the field
1.3 hours of true astronomical dark with the core above 20° and the moon below the horizon, peaking at 29°. The moon is 5% and down — this is as dark as this longitude gets. Forecast cloud 0%. The core never climbs past 29° at this latitude, so it sits low in the south — you need a southern horizon with no town behind it.