What's Up Tonight is a free astronomy dashboard built by an astronomer for the astronomy community. We don't track you, we don't sell your data and we don't use advertising. Your location is used only to fetch sky conditions — it stays in your browser and never touches our servers.
✅ No tracking · ✅ No advertising · ✅ No selling data · ✅ No accounts required · ✅ Location stays on your device
📍 Location Data
What's Up Tonight needs your location to provide sky conditions, moon phase, ISS passes, twilight times and aurora data for your area. Here's exactly how it works:
Approximate location on first visit — when you visit the site for the first time with no saved location, your browser makes a quick request to ipapi.co to estimate your approximate city based on your public IP address. This populates the dashboard immediately so you see something useful on arrival. The estimate is typically accurate to within 50 km — fine for cloud-cover and astronomy forecasts. You can override it any time using "My Location" or by typing a city.
GPS location — if you click "My Location" your browser asks permission to share your precise coordinates. These are sent directly to weather and astronomy APIs to fetch your sky report. They are never stored on our servers.
Searched location — if you type a city name it is sent to OpenStreetMap's Nominatim service to convert it to coordinates. The resulting coordinates are saved in your browser's localStorage so the site remembers your location next time.
Saved locations — your saved location tabs (Home, Site 1, Site 2) are stored entirely in your browser's localStorage. They never leave your device.
We never know your location — your coordinates go directly from your browser to third-party weather and geolocation APIs. Our servers are never involved.
💾 What We Store (In Your Browser Only)
We use localStorage and sessionStorage — storage built into your browser — to remember your preferences. Nothing is stored on our servers.
Your last location — so the site loads your sky report automatically next visit
Saved location tabs — your named observing sites
Units preference — whether you prefer °F/mph or °C/km/h
Email signup status — so the signup form doesn't show again after you've subscribed
You can clear all of this at any time by clearing your browser's site data, or by clicking "Change" on the site to reset your location.
📧 Email Alerts
If you sign up for clear sky alerts your email address is submitted to MailerLite (mailerlite.com) — a trusted email service provider. Your email is used solely to send you astronomy alerts and notifications from What's Up Tonight.
We will never sell, rent or share your email address with third parties
You can unsubscribe at any time — every email includes an unsubscribe link
We only send alerts when conditions are genuinely worth going out — not marketing or promotional emails
If you submit a message through the in-page Feedback button, your message is sent to Formspree (formspree.io). Email is optional and used only if you'd like a reply. Formspree's privacy policy: formspree.io/legal/privacy-policy.
🌤️ Weather & Astronomical Data Sources
What's Up Tonight uses several trusted third-party services to provide sky conditions. Every attempt is made to ensure all data is current, accurate and up to date. However astronomy and weather data is inherently subject to model accuracy, update frequency and API availability. Always verify conditions before committing to an observing session — especially before travelling to a remote dark site.
Open-Meteo
open-meteo.com
Global weather forecast data — cloud cover, temperature, wind, humidity, precipitation, dew point. Uses ECMWF, GFS and other leading weather models. Covers the entire world.
Sunrise-Sunset API
sunrise-sunset.org
Precise sunrise, sunset and twilight times for any location and date worldwide. Astronomical calculations are highly accurate.
Open-Notify
open-notify.org
ISS pass times for any location. Pass predictions are generally accurate within 3 days. Beyond 3 days orbital mechanics make predictions unreliable.
NOAA SWPC
services.swpc.noaa.gov
Real-time Kp index and geomagnetic storm data for aurora forecasting. Official US government space weather data — the authoritative source for aurora information.
Nominatim / OpenStreetMap
nominatim.org
Location search and reverse geocoding — converts city names to coordinates and vice versa. Open source, community maintained global database.
Data accuracy disclaimer: What's Up Tonight makes every effort to provide accurate, current and useful sky condition data by using trusted, reputable data sources updated in real time. Weather forecasts are inherently probabilistic — conditions can change rapidly. Astronomical calculations (moon phase, planet positions, twilight times) are mathematically precise. We recommend always checking conditions again close to your observing session, particularly before long journeys to dark sites. What's Up Tonight is provided for reference and planning purposes only.
🚫 What We Don't Do
We do not use advertising of any kind
We do not track you across the web
We do not use analytics tracking cookies
We do not sell or share any data
We do not require account creation
We do not store any personal data on our servers
We do not use third-party advertising networks
🔗 Third-Party Links
What's Up Tonight contains links to external websites including astronomy resources, software tools and community sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these external sites. We only link to reputable, well-established services in the astronomy community.
📬 Contact
Questions about this privacy policy or how your data is handled? Get in touch: