Planning stargazing nights around the moon?

[WilliamWood]

Apologies if this is answered elsewhere. Is there already a site or other tool that calculates the dates and times when the moon is either not yet risen, already set, or in a phase that is less bright? For example, I'd like to know well in advance if the moon, although nearly full, will not rise until 2 hours after sunset, giving a nice 2 hour window of observing time. I know the USNO site has all the info separately (i.e. it give the moonrise/set chart, the sunrise/set chart and the phases of the moon), but what I'm looking for is a synthesis of this info, ideally presented in a graphical format, so I can plan out sessions a year or so in advance. I imagine it has to have been done...

[Dick Jacobson]

The Skygazer's Almanac that Sky & Telescope publishes every year shows the Moon phase and rising or setting time for the whole year on a single page. It also shows sunset, sunrise, and the rising, transit, and setting times of the planets and a few bright stars and other objects, all on one ingenious chart. I don't know if this is precise enough for what you want.

[merle]

Bill,

I've been searching this morning for an answer for you, and I am going to conclude there are a couple of ways to do this. Find the sunrise and sunset data for the year, ( http://www.sunrisesunsetmap.com/ssmap/y ... &year=2012 )

That's the easy part... then the same info for moonrise and moonset ( http://www.moonsigncalendar.net/sunrise ... &jahr=2012 ). Within Excel you can subtract the sunset from moonrise and get the answer I think your looking for. I don't see anyway this wouldn't work assuming you can find the data.

I've always had trouble working with time & dates in Excel, so for me I'd use the 2nd option, a planetarium program. Using Starry Night Pro (or whatever app or program you might have), you should be able to lock on and track the moon. You'll only need to concentrate on the phases of the moon past full to get the info you need. This obviously gives a graphical view you're looking for as well as showing if the moon is above or below the ecliptic. I think you'll find that in the summer & fall there will be a greater time between sunset and moonrise (for a similar phase), than in the winter & spring.

I know it may sound tedious to have to go through day by day to get this info, but I've always thought these programs are a good way to see how the motion of the sky works and occasionally run across other interesting objects. I've probably "discovered" a dozen comets, just by running a simulation of the night sky.

[clayton]

I found a few more:
Not Graphical, but data is well formatted and can be made site specific http://dvaa.org/php/DarkCal.php
I have not tried, however it's on my to-do list DeepSky 5 trail ( free version ) has graphical Astronomical darkness reports http://knightware.biz/dsp/trial.htm

[MaryB]

http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/echo-m ... my/2247496 shows moon phases for the month

[miko]

I use Stellarium to determine best viewing times for all of the objects I image/view.

http://www.stellarium.org/