Night Sky Tonight in Fossil Butte

The live score above pulls today's forecast and runs it through StarCast's scoring model, which factors in cloud cover, moon illumination, Bortle class, humidity, and atmospheric transparency. Above 70 is an excellent night. Below 40, conditions are poor. The score updates daily.

Fossil Butte National Monument sits in Wyoming's Green River Basin at 6,900 feet with some of the darkest skies in the lower 48. The monument sees fewer than 20,000 visitors a year, keeping the area undeveloped and quiet. The stratified buttes and open sagebrush give foreground depth, and the basin's flat horizon is unobstructed in every direction. Kemmerer, the nearest town, is small enough to produce no meaningful glow.

The galactic core is visible from late March through October. Wyoming's high desert climate delivers exceptional transparency and low humidity year-round. The core rises in the south with nothing to obstruct it across the flat basin. Summer evenings cool rapidly after sunset, so the early part of the night is the most comfortable for shooting.