Astronomy Guide

Astronomy Guide provides the astronomer with information on what to see in the sky, and how well it can be seen! Astronomy Guide can give a summary of atmospheric and seeing conditions for the night's sky at your location. Provides moon phase, sunrise, and sunset info, in addition to atmospheric conditions. Ask for viewing highlights for this month or an upcoming month, and Astronomy Guide will provide observing events, highlights, and visible Messier objects for evenings during the month. Astronomy Guide can also describe whether the Sun is displaying any sunspots, to help guide your daytime observing. Additional phrases include:

Alexa, ask Astronomy Guide for seeing conditions near Madison, Wisconsin. [Or just about any world city]

Alexa, ask Astronomy Guide which planets are visible in June. [Your choice of month.]

Alexa, ask Astronomy Guide for observing highlights in March. [Again, your choice of month.]

Alexa, ask Astronomy Guide if I can see M42. [full Messier catalogue available, along with suggestions during each month.]

Alexa, ask Astronomy Guide for info on Ganymede. [try your favorite solar system object]

Alexa, ask Astronomy Guide for a sunspot report. [provides live data from NOAA]

Alexa, ask Astronomy Guide how far Neptune is. [try your favorite solar system object]

Alexa, ask Astronomy Guide how bright M44 is. [try your favorite Messier Object or solar system object]

Alexa, tell Astronomy Guide to set default location to Madison, Wisconsin. [Saves for future use. Can be cleared or changed later on.]

Note: Planet rise times, visibility data only cover the northern hemisphere. Southern hemisphere coming soon!

Data from US NOAA, ClearDarkSky.com, MeteoBlue (meteoblue.com), and the Canadian Meteorological Centre. 2017 viewing highlights from Guy Ottewell's Astronomic Calendar (universalworkshop.com/guysblog). Calculations supported by PyEphem. Powered by DarkSky (DarkSky.net). Autolocation from , Weather Underground (weatherunderground.com). Astronomy Guide does not claim ownership of information from these sources, and does not profit from redistribution of these data.