Use moonlight, night windows, and nearby sky events to judge whether a night is good for stargazing or moon viewing.
How to read the stargazing score
The score is not only a cloud check. The real experience depends on darkness, moonlight, where you stand relative to light pollution, and whether there is a sky event worth waiting for.
Dark window — After sunset, deep-sky objects, the Milky Way, and meteors improve once nautical or astronomical twilight has ended.
Moonlight — Full-moon nights are great for moon viewing but wash out faint stars. New-moon nights are better for dark-sky targets.
Place and direction — The same night can feel completely different in a city and on a mountain. Use the score to decide whether to go, then the map and sky chart to decide where to stand and face.
Turn tonight into a route
Once the date looks promising, choose a dark-sky site, confirm the Milky Way or Moon direction on the live sky map, and check whether any sky event deserves extra time.