Night Sky Tonight in Roxborough State Park

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.

Roxborough is the closest location to Denver with genuinely dramatic foreground: towering Fountain Formation sandstone fins rise 200 feet from the valley floor just 20 miles from downtown. The fins face west and south, which is the darkest quadrant from this location. The park closes at dusk to general visitors, so astrophotography works best from the surrounding open space land along the perimeter.

The galactic core is visible from late March through October. Late spring and early summer are best before Denver's summer haze builds. The core rises in the south and southwest, the darkest quadrant from this location. The sandstone fins catch last twilight beautifully in May and June, allowing blue-hour foreground work before the core appears.