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Best time to see the Milky Way in Big Bend National Park
April, May and June are the best months to see the Milky Way core at Big Bend National Park. The best week of 2027 is May 3 to 9, when the core is above 10 degrees in full darkness with the moon below the horizon for about 4.8 hours a night.
Apr, May and Jun
Best months for the core
32°
Highest point of the core, due south
38%
Average cloud amount over the year
68
Top core score out of 100, in May
The core clears 10 degrees during full darkness on most nights from February to October. In January, November and December it is out of reach, either too close to the Sun or too low in the dark.
Core score by month
| Month | Core score | Best week | Moon-free core hours a night | Average cloud |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 0 | No moon-free core hours | 0 | 42% |
| February | 14 | February 10 to 16 | 1.0 | 42% |
| March | 35 | March 9 to 15 | 2.3 | 39% |
| April | 56 | April 6 to 12 | 3.5 | 36% |
| May | 68 | May 3 to 9 | 4.8 | 32% |
| June | 65 | June 1 to 7 | 6.0 | 35% |
| July | 54 | July 1 to 7 | 5.9 | 46% |
| August | 54 | August 1 to 7 | 3.9 | 45% |
| September | 32 | September 21 to 27 | 2.2 | 40% |
| October | 14 | October 18 to 24 | 0.8 | 29% |
| November | 0 | No moon-free core hours | 0 | 31% |
| December | 0 | Core not visible | 0 | 39% |
Times are for the best seven nights in each month. Moon-free means the moon is below the horizon. The core counts as visible above 10 degrees in full darkness, when the Sun is more than 18 degrees below the horizon.
The best nights in 2027
- April: April 11 is the best night. The core is above 10 degrees and the moon is down from 2:32 am to 6:02 am, with the moon 31% lit that night.
- May: May 9 is the best night. The core is above 10 degrees and the moon is down from 12:42 am to 5:32 am, with the moon 19% lit that night.
- June: June 3 is the best night. The core is above 10 degrees and the moon is down from 11:02 pm to 5:12 am, with the moon 1% lit that night.
Clock times are Central time with daylight saving applied. The best nights fall around the new moon, so the dates shift by about 11 days each year.
About the park
The National Park Service says its own measurements show Big Bend has "the darkest night skies of any national park in the lower 48 states," and the park was awarded International Dark Sky Park status in 2012. National Park Service.
How Big Bend National Park compares
Its best monthly core score of 68 ranks 18 of 54 national park units that can see the core. The highest is Lassen Volcanic National Park at 86, and the lowest is Voyageurs National Park at 13. Cloud at Big Bend National Park runs from 29% in October to 46% in July.
The score ranks months and parks. It is not a forecast for any night, and it leaves out local weather, smoke and light from nearby towns. How the core score works.
Nearest parks
Sources and method
- Sun, Moon and galactic centre positions calculated for the park's latitude and longitude from the low-precision formulas in Paul Schlyter's "Computing planetary positions", with the standard sidereal-time and horizon formulas. The code is checked against known events: new and full moons within 5 minutes, and the September equinox within 1 minute.
- Cloud: monthly mean cloud amount, 25-year Meteorological and Solar Monthly & Annual Climatologies (January 2001 - December 2025), from NASA POWER (version v2.10.1, source SYN1DEG), accessed October 19, 2026. Data obtained from NASA Langley Research Center POWER Project.
- Park facts: National Park Service.