MilkyWayPlanner.com: A Planning Tool for Night Sky Photography

Photographing the night sky requires more planning than most types of photography. You need dark skies, minimal moonlight, and the right timing for celestial objects to be visible. Get any of these wrong and you drive home with nothing.

I built MilkyWayPlanner.com to simplify this process. The tool shows you when and where conditions will be right for night sky photography at any location in the world.

Here is what the tool does and why it matters if you are interested in capturing the Milky Way, moon, or starry skies.

Why Night Sky Photography Needs Planning

Unlike landscape or portrait work, you cannot photograph the night sky whenever you feel like it. Several factors have to align.

Moon phase matters. A bright moon washes out the Milky Way and most stars. Serious night sky work happens during new moon phases or when the moon is below the horizon.

Timing is specific. The galactic core of the Milky Way is only visible during certain months and at certain times of night depending on your location. Miss the window and there is nothing to photograph.

Dark skies are essential. Light pollution from cities can ruin shots from dozens of miles away. You need to know where to go, not just when.

Planning tools help you figure out which nights work and which do not before you commit to a long drive.

The Free Annual Calendar

The core feature is a free calendar that shows Milky Way visibility for an entire year at any location.

Enter your location, select a year, and the tool generates a 12-month calendar with color-coded days. Green means excellent conditions. Yellow means fair. Gray means poor or no visibility.

You can see at a glance which weekends offer dark, moonless skies and which ones to skip. No more checking dates one at a time.

Each calendar includes a detailed breakdown of the best nights with sunrise and sunset times, moonrise and moonset times, and the exact window when the Milky Way core will be visible.

The calendar is shareable with a unique URL and downloadable as a PDF you can print.

Creating a calendar requires an email signup. You will receive occasional updates about astrophotography planning. Unsubscribe anytime.

Moon Planner

Moon photography is a separate discipline from Milky Way work. Instead of avoiding the moon, you are tracking it.

The Moon Planner shows moonrise and moonset times along with the compass direction for each. This helps you position yourself to capture the moon rising over a mountain ridge or setting behind a city skyline.

The planner identifies supermoon dates when the moon appears larger than normal. It also shows twilight times so you can photograph the moon against colorful skies rather than full darkness.

You can export moon data to a spreadsheet or sync it directly to your calendar app.

The Moon Planner requires a premium subscription.

Trip Planner

Multi-night photography trips add complexity. You need to know conditions at multiple locations across multiple dates.

The Trip Planner lets you build itineraries with several stops. Add locations, assign dates to each stop, and see visibility conditions for every night of your trip.

This helps you structure a road trip so you are at the right place on the right night. No more arriving at a location only to find the moon blazing overhead.

You can export complete trip itineraries to a spreadsheet or sync them to your calendar with all stops and optimal shooting times included.

Trip data stays private. Only you can see your itineraries.

The Trip Planner requires a premium subscription.

The Planning Hub

Premium subscribers get access to a unified dashboard with all three planners in one place.

The hub includes location management for saving your favorite dark sky spots. You can build a personal library of shooting locations and quickly pull up conditions for any of them.

Export options include Excel spreadsheets with complete astronomical data and ICS files that sync with Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Outlook.

What It Costs

The annual calendar is free with email signup.

Premium access costs $25 per year and includes the Moon Planner, Trip Planner, unlimited saved locations, and all export features.

Getting Started

If you have thought about trying night sky photography but felt overwhelmed by the planning, start with a free calendar. Enter a location near you, pick this year, and see which nights offer the best conditions.

The tool handles the astronomical calculations. You just need to show up with your camera.

Visit MilkyWayPlanner.com to create your first calendar.