Weather awareness

Keep the sky in the plan.

Use the forecast to plan ahead, satellite imagery to inspect nearby cloud and your own exposures to judge the view through the telescope.

01 / Weather sources

Read each source for what it can tell you.

Forecast

Open-Meteo supplies forecast data. Astrospheric requires your own eligible account, API key and the in-app acknowledgement. Available forecast fields depend on the provider.

Satellite cloud estimates

GOES cloud-mask and cloud-top data are projected into a sky dome. Successive observations support short-term drift estimates, with the source time and availability shown.

Your own frames

Bright-star counts and image contrast feed a cloud score. Exposure, focus and your rig's thresholds affect the result, so the sequence uses a debounced reading.

02 / Satellite coverage

Check coverage before relying on the dome.

The satellite layer uses GOES-18 and GOES-19 and is intended for sites within their footprint, principally the Americas. Outside coverage, or with missing or stale data, the service reports the limitation. Forecast and frame-based checks are separate from that satellite coverage.

03 / Cloud holds

Let a passing cloud pause the sequence.

With a cloud-hold rule configured, the sequence stops normal capture and probes for clearing. It can collect configured hold darks while waiting. Before resuming, it restores the filter and checks cooling, centring and guiding as required.

04 / Safety

Keep safety decisions separate.

A connected safety monitor can end the sequence on an unsafe or stale reading. Parking and closure follow the configured shutdown behavior. Satellite estimates are advisory and do not operate the safety gate.

05 / Dusk checks

Check the forecast again at dusk.

Automatic session re-arming can wait when the forecast predicts rain. Forecast cloud cover is shown for planning and does not veto the night. Review the weather settings and any override before leaving a repeating plan armed.

Add weather rules to a flow