November 2026 · Kielder Forest
A calendar ranked for darkness.
Each night carries its moon phase and how long the sky is truly dark with the moon down. Colours rate it from Excellent to None, always with the word beside the colour.
Moon · Golden hour · Dark sky
Know which nights are worth the drive.
Sky Window works out sunset, golden and blue hour, the moon, and the truly dark hours for any place, then puts the best nights of the month on one calendar.
Free. Runs in your browser. No account.
How it works
Three choices. Then the sky does the maths.
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01
Pick a place.
Search 130 towns and dark-sky parks, use where you're standing, or type exact coordinates.
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02
Pick your dates.
The next 30 nights are chosen for you. Stretch the range to any 92.
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03
Read the calendar.
Every night shows its moon and its moonless dark time. The best three get a star.
One night at Kielder Forest
Watch a night unfold.
Sky Window samples the sky every five minutes from noon to noon, then pins each edge to the second.
Thu 12 Nov 2026 · the best night of the month
- 16:12 Sunset The sun's centre slips below the horizon.
- 16:37 Evening golden hour ends The sun passes −4° and the warm light goes.
- 16:52 Blue hour ends The sun passes −6°. The blue drains out of the sky.
- 17:21 Moonset The waxing crescent, 13% lit, follows the sun down.
- 18:19 Astronomical dusk: dark begins The sun passes −18°. The sky is as dark as it gets.
- 11h 11m Moonless dark 18:19–05:30. Sun 18° down, moon below the horizon. This is the window.
- 05:30 Astronomical dawn The sun climbs back past −18°. The faintest stars go first.
- 07:38 Sunrise Friday begins. The night is over.
What it knows
Everything between sunset and sunrise.
Thu 12 Nov · Kielder Forest
Morning
06:5607:1108:36
Blue hour 06:56–07:11, golden hour 07:11–08:36.
Evening
15:1216:3716:52
Golden hour 15:12–16:37, blue hour 16:37–16:52.
Sunset 16:12 · Sunrise 07:38
Golden and blue hour, both ends of the day.
Morning and evening golden hour from −4° to +6°, blue hour from −6° to −4°, in the place's own time zone.
The moon as you'll see it.
Phase name and percent lit for every night, drawn the right way round in the southern hemisphere too.
Night vision.
A red-on-black theme with no blue light, so checking the time doesn't cost you your dark adaptation.
Honest at the poles.
In Tromsø in June there's no dark at all, and Sky Window says so: 'Sun stays up all day', never a made-up time.
Yours, and offline.
No account, no server, no tracking. Your places and theme stay in your browser, and the planner keeps working with no signal at the trailhead.
- No account
- Works with no signal
- Places saved in your browser
The planner itself
Don't take the page's word for it. Try it.
This is the planner itself, running right here. Type Kielder in the search, or any town you know.
Opens full screen too: open the planner in its own tab ↗
The fine print
Worked out, not guessed.
Sun and moon positions come from published astronomical formulas, computed on your device. Sun times land within about two minutes of almanac tables.
- Sunrise and sunset
- the sun's centre crosses −0.833°.
- Golden hour
- sun from −4° to +6°.
- Blue hour
- sun from −6° to −4°.
- Dark sky
- sun below −18° (astronomical night).
- Moon up
- moon at or above +0.125°.
- A night
- local noon to local noon, named for the evening's date.
The next dark night is already on the calendar.
Open the plannerFree · In your browser · Works offline