24 hand-picked primary sources we use when writing and forecasting. Government feeds, peer-reviewed papers, and community tools that have stood the test of time. No affiliate links, no SEO farms.
Official designations, light-pollution maps, and the science behind sky brightness.
The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada's official list of certified Dark-Sky Preserves, Urban Star Parks, and Nocturnal Preserves, including Torrance Barrens, Lake Superior, Bruce Peninsula, Killarney and Point Pelee.
Global registry of certified Dark Sky Places. Cross-checks RASC designations and adds international context for what each tier actually means.
Interactive overlay of VIIRS-derived sky brightness for 2016–2024. The fastest way to compare any two Ontario locations on Bortle terms.
The peer-reviewed Science Advances paper (2016) that quantified global skyglow. Cited by basically every serious dark-sky article on the internet.
Official Kp / OVATION feeds and the models behind every aurora alert app.
Short-term aurora location and intensity from the OVATION model. This is the authoritative source most aurora apps repackage.
Kp index forecast in 3-hour blocks. The single most useful planning tool for booking an aurora trip 1–3 nights out.
Experimental product showing where the aurora is likely visible on the horizon tonight and tomorrow night across North America.
Live solar wind, IMF Bz, hemispheric power and Kp. Useful for understanding why a forecast is or isn't panning out in real time.
Forecasts built specifically for cloud cover, transparency and seeing, not generic precipitation.
Allan Rahill's CMC-based forecast turned into the iconic colour-block chart. Covers dozens of named Ontario observing locations.
Hourly cloud, transparency, seeing, smoke and aurora overlay for any point in North America. The go-to detailed planner.
Open, free weather API combining ECMWF, GFS and ICON. Powers the cloud and humidity numbers on this site.
Official Canadian forecasts and severe-weather alerts. Always cross-check before driving 3+ hours for a dark-sky weekend.
Primary calendars for everything that actually happens in the sky.
International Meteor Organization's annual calendar — peak times, radiants, ZHR rates and moon interference for every major and minor shower.
Official NASA eclipse hub with maps, timings and safe-viewing guidance for solar and lunar events visible from North America.
Visible planets, ISS passes, moon and twilight times for any Canadian city. Easy to share with a non-astronomer friend.
ISS, Starlink trains, Tiangong and Iridium-flare passes for your exact location. Pair with a clear-sky forecast for naked-eye predictions.
Free apps and web tools used by working astrophotographers.
Free browser-based planetarium. Set your location and time to preview exactly what the sky will look like tonight.
The industry-standard planning app for Milky Way, moon and sun alignments. Augmented-reality viewfinder is worth the price alone.
Map-based sun, moon and Milky Way planner. The free web version covers 90% of dark-sky trip planning.
During wildfire season, smoke can kill transparency at otherwise dark sites. Astrospheric overlays NOAA / Copernicus smoke forecasts at observing altitude.
Long-running clubs, podcasts and citizen-science projects worth your time.
Canada's national astronomy society. Local centres in Toronto, Ottawa, Kingston, Hamilton, London, Niagara, Sudbury and Thunder Bay run regular public observing nights.
If you want your backyard data to contribute to real science, the AAVSO is the entry point. Free, beginner-friendly programs.
NOIRLab program that lets anyone measure local sky darkness from a phone. Contributes to the global light-pollution dataset.
The largest English-language amateur astronomy forum. Active Ontario subforums for gear questions and trip reports.