Some nights are worth losing sleep over.

Find your window into the universe.

Clearhour turns the forecast, your horizon, your gear, and the sky above you into one practical imaging plan, and carries your sessions forward across more clear hours and nights wherever you want to capture the wonder of the sky next.

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Horizon-aware targetsMulti-night planningSynced session library
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One system

Everything talks to everything.

Sky Signal, your site, your gear, and tonight's target list all read from the same data, not five disconnected tools bolted together. Change one thing, and every plan downstream already knows.

1

Smart target selection

Point at what tonight can actually deliver, not a generic visibility chart.

2

Session & exposure planning

Every exposure, filter, and panel, scheduled around tonight's Sky Signal.

Hα + OIII, compiled into one shot
3

Multi-night & mosaic campaigns

Big projects that remember exactly where you left off.

Panel-by-panel, night by night
4

Instrumentation

Every plan already knows what your scope, mount, and filters can do.

5

Synced session library & sharing

Plans, session details, and photos stay with your account across devices, ready to revisit or share.

Every session saved. Share with one link
Tonight at a glance
Joshua Tree, CA Strike
8:18 PM· dark begins in 1h 17m · 68°F · ☁ 8% · 💧 38% · 💨 4 mph
Tonight, sunset to sunrise · all times local
7:52 PM Sunset 9:35 PM Astro dark 4:10 AM Dark ends 5:53 AM Sunrise 6.6 h of true dark
Forecast by hour , aligned to the timeline above
8PM9PM10PM11PM12AM1AM2AM3AM4AM5AM
Clear (<20%)Partly cloudyCloudy
Moonrise 11:20 PM · 12% illuminated, rises after the Strike window opens, too thin to knock it off Strike.
Beyond tonight

Plan the clear hours, not just the clear night.

Clearhour connects the ten-night outlook to the work already in your portfolio, finds the nights worth protecting, and turns each one into the next useful step.

Ten-night planning window · Joshua Tree, CaliforniaForecast guidance, not live radar
Fri4Watch2.1 clear h
Sat5Strike5.8 clear h
Sun6WaitClouds
Mon7WaitWind
Tue8Watch3.0 clear h
Wed9Strike6.4 clear h
Thu10Watch3.7 clear h
Fri11WaitClouds
Sat12Strike5.2 clear h
Sun13Watch2.8 clear h
1 · Choose the opportunity

Saturday is worth the setup.

Low cloud, steady air, and nearly six usable hours make this the best opening in the range.

Continue Veil campaignBest fit
North America NebulaSame setup
2 · Build the run plan

Your horizon sets the order.

Your neighbor's house and trees delay the Veil, so Clearhour starts with the North America Nebula and moves to the Veil when it clears, optimizing time on both targets near their highest altitude.

8:42 PM2:31 AM
✓ Filter, exposure, mosaic, and power checks included
3 · Keep the progress

The next device picks up here.

Session details and images stay attached to the project, ready for the next clear hour.

Veil Nebula
Veil campaign · 62% completeHα complete · OIII next · synced
Andromeda Galaxy
Session libraryPlan, notes, conditions, and photo
3 · Explore the sky

Point at what tonight can actually deliver.

Sky Signal, your site, and your gear narrow the catalog down to what's genuinely worth the hours you have, not a generic visibility chart.

905 targets and growingNebulae, galaxies, clusters, planets, the Moon, and named stars are evaluated for your date, site, and rig, especially how each target fits your field of view. Including some key Southern Hemisphere stunners.
Andromeda Galaxy
4 · Rank the opportunities

Ranked, not just visible.

Every target above your horizon gets scored against tonight's Sky Signal, your site, and your gear, then held to a plan of up to three, so you spend the night on what's actually worth it and capture enough data to make magic.

Tonight's BestJoshua Tree · ranked
1
Andromeda Galaxy
4.1h clear · Bortle 3–4 estimate · wide FOV match
Good
2
Veil Nebula
2.3h clear · clears ridge at 11:40 PM
Good
3
Eagle Nebula
1.8h clear · low altitude, marginal seeing
Marginal
–
Elephant's Trunk Nebula
0.6h clear · barely above your ridge
Cut
Three is the cap. Clearhour ranks everything visible, then holds tonight's plan to the targets actually worth your hours.
2 · Teach Clearhour your horizon

Knows exactly what your horizon blocks.

Map the ridge, the roofline, the tree next door once. Every plan afterward already accounts for it, down to the minute a target clears your obstruction and comes into range.

Tonight's domedrag or scroll · ↻ replay trace
Ridge
The Veil Nebula is behind the ridge until 11:40 PM. Clearhour already knows to hold it for later in the plan.
5 · Build the run plan

Every exposure, filter, and panel, scheduled.

Clearhour matches targets to tonight's Sky Signal, your site's Bortle class and horizon, and your gear's field of view, not just what's technically above the horizon.

Veil Nebula
6 · Take it to the telescope

Fumble around in the dark like a pro with a field-ready plan.

You already have enough variables in play, and the opportunity can be rare. When setup begins, Clearhour gives you a bespoke, focused sequence, intelligently ordering what to connect, what to verify, what to shoot, and what comes next.

Portable run planVeil campaign · Saturday
Ready
1
Polar alignmentTarget ≤ 1.0′
Check
2
Focus and frameLoad saved orientation · 38°
Next
3
Begin OIII block42 × 180s · panel 3
11:18 PM
4
Log the sessionProgress returns to the campaign
Later
7 · Continue across clear nights

Big projects that remember where you left off.

Multi-night, multi-filter, and mosaic session planning takes the guesswork out of target order, exposures, and filters across every clear night you get.

Sample run plan6-panel · pane to completion
1 2 3 4 5 6
Hα OIII

Each panel: 20 × 300s Hα · 16 × 300s OIII, both filters shot before the 3-min slew to the next panel. 6 panels · 216 subs · 18.0h on target + 15m slews, planned across as many clear nights as it takes.

Same plan, on the calendar4 nights · WAIT skipped
Sat, Sep 5
Strike
Panels 1–2Hα + OIII · 6.0h
Wed, Sep 9
Strike
Panel 3Hα + OIII · 3.0h
Sep 6–8
Wait
3 nights skipped
Sat, Sep 12
Strike
Panels 4–5Hα + OIII · 6.0h
Sun, Sep 13
Watch
Panel 6Hα + OIII · 3.0h

Same 6-panel plan as the schematic. Clearhour checks Sky Signal for every night in range and schedules 18.0h on target across the useful nights, with slew overhead reserved separately.

1 · Start with your equipment

Setup, tailored to your rig.

Your scope, mount, camera, and filters live in one place, so every target pick, exposure plan, and obstruction check already knows what your gear can actually do, instead of asking you to re-enter it session after session.

Running more than one setup? Save each rig once (travel refractor, backyard RASA, a wide-field second body) and switch between them in a click. Clone a rig to try a change without losing the original, and if a swap doesn't work out, roll back to the version that did.

Your rig

RASA 8 "Beast"

RASA 8
Astrograph OTA
Advanced VX
GEM mount
Cooled camera
Imaging camera
Filter drawer
Starizona, 3 filters
Autofocus
Electronic focuser
Guide scope
Standalone guiding
Power station
Field power
In the drawer
IR/UV Cut
Broadband luminance
NBZ II
Hα + OIII duo
S2/O3
SII + OIII duo
Your saved rigs
RASA 8 "Beast" Travel refractor Wide-field rig + New rig

Switching rigs re-runs every plan against the new gear's specs (FOV, guiding, filter set) automatically.

Gallery

Shot with Clearhour session plans.

Every photo keeps its session log attached: filters, exposures, conditions, and location detail at the privacy level you choose. Sign in on another device, and the same session is there.

Click a photo, or a session in the library, to flip it and see the plan behind the shot.

Andromeda Galaxy
Andromeda Galaxy
Session log
Andromeda Galaxy · M31
SiteBackyard · Bortle 4–6 estimate
RigRASA 8 · Advanced VX
Subs captured70 × 180s
FilterIR/UV cut
Integration3h 30m over 2 nights
Polar align error0.8′ (SharpCap)
ConditionsTransparency Good · Seeing 2.4″
"Second night picked up right where the plan left off, same framing, same filter order, no guesswork."
Click to flip back
Horsehead Nebula
Horsehead Nebula
Session log
Horsehead Nebula · IC 434
SiteDark-sky site · Bortle 2–3 estimate
RigRASA 8 · Advanced VX
Subs captured84 × 150s
FilterNBZ II (dual-band)
Integration3h 30m, single night
Polar align error0.5′ (SharpCap)
ConditionsTransparency Excellent · Seeing 1.9″
"Run plan flagged the meridian flip an hour out, no dropped subs, no 2am scrambling."
Click to flip back
Orion Nebula
Orion Nebula
Session log
Orion Nebula · M42
SiteBackyard · Bortle 4–6 estimate
RigRASA 8 · Advanced VX
Subs captured64 × 120s
FilterNBZ II (dual-band)
Integration2h 08m, single night
Polar align error1.1′ (SharpCap)
ConditionsTransparency Good · Seeing 2.6″
"Short session, but the plan sequenced short subs on the core first, before the trapezium started clipping."
Click to flip back
Session library
Every completed plan is saved here automatically. Click a session to pull up its log, same as clicking the photo.
✦ Built in California with ❤️

I built the tool I wished I'd had
for all of us.

What I know, I've learned from a generous community of YouTubers, Cloudy Nights posters, and Redditors, but I still kept bouncing between forecasts, charts, and calculators, and too often was still figuring things out at the telescope while a clear sky passed overhead.

Clear hours are rare. Clearhour makes them count. I hope you'll use it, critique it, and help me make it better for all of us.

Live long and prosper 🖖, ChrisClearhour creator
Community

Astrophotographers everywhere, each keeping their own odd hours.

Share a finished Portfolio image with its acquisition details still attached, from wherever your clear hours happen to fall. Sample locations shown, not live user data.

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