2026-05-14, 01:11 AM
(This post was last modified: 2026-05-14, 01:13 AM by theskyhound.)
Hello Christina,
The 9:45 AM is for the previous day. If you look at the red dashed line on the Nightbar--that's the altitude of Jupiter. We see that's already high in the sky at noon, on the left side of the Nightbar. The start time is before that off to the left about two hours earlier (9:45 AM). The reality is that the software was designed to look at a night of observation for deep sky objects, and that begins and ends with twilight. Jupiter can sometimes break it, by not being available in the night time.
There are two things you can do that will make this less confusing. First, enable your filters. Your quality filter should be set to Best Quality, or at the very least Fair quality. Jupiter is going to go away entirely because its quality is actually very poor on this night.
The second thing you can do is to drag the begin and end time sliders to mark the time period you want to observe. This will ensure that a bright planet like Jupiter won't be suggested during that day (if that's what you want).
Lastly, I can't see the entire window, but it looks to me like something is seriously wrong with your location setup. Midnight should always be within an hour of the darkest part of the night. Unless the sun rises at 2 or 3 AM, there is a mismatch between your longitude and your time zone. Check your location settings. Be sure your longitude and latitude are correct, that they aren't switched, or in the wrong units, and that your time zone is set correctly. If you have more questions about this, send me the location dialog with your location selected. And the full Nightly Planner window.
The 9:45 AM is for the previous day. If you look at the red dashed line on the Nightbar--that's the altitude of Jupiter. We see that's already high in the sky at noon, on the left side of the Nightbar. The start time is before that off to the left about two hours earlier (9:45 AM). The reality is that the software was designed to look at a night of observation for deep sky objects, and that begins and ends with twilight. Jupiter can sometimes break it, by not being available in the night time.
There are two things you can do that will make this less confusing. First, enable your filters. Your quality filter should be set to Best Quality, or at the very least Fair quality. Jupiter is going to go away entirely because its quality is actually very poor on this night.
The second thing you can do is to drag the begin and end time sliders to mark the time period you want to observe. This will ensure that a bright planet like Jupiter won't be suggested during that day (if that's what you want).
Lastly, I can't see the entire window, but it looks to me like something is seriously wrong with your location setup. Midnight should always be within an hour of the darkest part of the night. Unless the sun rises at 2 or 3 AM, there is a mismatch between your longitude and your time zone. Check your location settings. Be sure your longitude and latitude are correct, that they aren't switched, or in the wrong units, and that your time zone is set correctly. If you have more questions about this, send me the location dialog with your location selected. And the full Nightly Planner window.
Clear skies,
Greg
Head Dude at Skyhound
Greg
Head Dude at Skyhound
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