Short answers about seeing and photographing the sky from Guyana, and about the free tools and lessons. Each one links to the tool or lesson that goes further.
Only faintly. Central Georgetown is about Bortle 7 to 8, so city light washes out most of the band. Head inland, away from the coastal towns, and it sharpens quickly: much of the interior is close to Bortle 1. Check any spot on the Bortle Map and read Dark Skies in Guyana.
February to October. The bright core is a before-dawn sight from February to May, is up most of the night in June, and is an evening sight from July to October. May to July give the most time, about 7 to 8.5 hours a night in full darkness. It crosses due south about 54° up from Georgetown and 58° from Lethem. From November to January it is too close to the Sun. Plan with the Milky Way Season Planner and read Milky Way Season Near the Equator.
For clear skies, August to October. In ten years of weather records about one night in five was mostly clear at Georgetown and Lethem in those months, against 1 to 7 in a hundred from May to July, the heart of the main wet season. January comes close to the best months. Those August to October evenings also hold the Milky Way core. On the night itself, check Stargazing Weather, and read the Dew and Monsoon Stargazing Playbook.
In the interior, away from towns. The North and South Rupununi savannahs, the Iwokrama forest and the land around Kaieteur are all close to Bortle 1. Lethem, Bartica and Mahdia are brighter near their own lights, so go a few kilometres out. Many sites need a 4x4, a flight or a lodge stay: check access and safety before you go. The Bortle Map marks eight suggested Guyana sites with access notes.
Early, and at nearly the same time all year. Sunset in Georgetown falls between about 17:30 and 18:15 Guyana time, and the sky is fully dark (the Sun 18° below the horizon) 69 to 77 minutes later, between about 18:45 and 19:30. Near the equator twilight is short: in London in October the same step takes almost two hours. Sun/Moon Times & Dark Window gives tonight’s times for any place.
Yes, both. Guyana is just north of the equator, so Polaris sits only about 6 to 7° above the northern horizon from Georgetown, and 3 to 4° from Lethem, and needs a clear, flat view north. The Southern Cross climbs about 20° above the southern horizon from Georgetown and 24° from Lethem, highest in the evening from April to June. Finding Objects in the Night Sky Without Polaris shows how to find your way.
It changes through the year. Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn and Mercury can all be seen with the naked eye at times, and from near the equator they can climb high overhead. Mercury only ever shows low in twilight. Planets Visible Tonight shows which are up from your location, how high they get and when to look.
The main showers peak around 3 to 4 January (Quadrantids), 22 April (Lyrids), 6 May (Eta Aquariids), 31 July (Southern Delta Aquariids), 12 to 13 August (Perseids), 21 October (Orionids), 17 November (Leonids) and 14 December (Geminids). The hourly rate quoted online (the ZHR) assumes a perfectly dark sky with the shower’s radiant overhead, so expect far fewer, especially in a city or under a bright Moon. From Guyana the Eta Aquariids and Orionids do well because their radiants climb high, while the Perseids’ radiant stays below about 39°. Meteor showers lists the next peaks with the Moon, and the Meteor Shower Simulator shows what to expect.
Often, yes. The space station’s orbit covers everywhere between 51.6° north and south, so it passes over Guyana regularly. You see it only while it is still in sunlight and your sky is dark, so visible passes come in the evening or before dawn. It looks like a bright, steady star crossing the sky in a few minutes, with no blinking lights. The ISS Pass Predictor gives the times, direction and height; Is the ISS Visible Tonight? explains how to read them.
The Moon: 20 February and 17 August 2027 bring only penumbral eclipses, a faint shading most people will not notice. In the early hours of 12 January 2028 a small part of the Moon dips into Earth’s shadow, and the next total lunar eclipses seen from Guyana are on the night of 25 June 2029 and the evening of 20 December 2029. The Sun: on 26 January 2028 about 70% of the Sun is covered from Georgetown, a partial eclipse, and Georgetown sees a total solar eclipse on 12 August 2045. Never look at the Sun without a certified solar filter. Every date and time is in Eclipses from Guyana.
Check four things: cloud, the Moon, how long it stays dark, and dew. Tonight Observing Score rolls them into one Go, Maybe or Skip for your location, and Stargazing Weather shows the forecast hour by hour. Is Tonight Good for Stargazing? explains each check.
The Bortle scale rates how dark a night sky is, from 1, an excellent dark site, to 9, an inner-city sky. The Bortle Map estimates the class for any place from satellite night-light data. It cannot see a single floodlight next to you, so scout your spot in daylight. What Is the Bortle Scale? explains each class.
The tools work out times for the place you pick, in that place’s local time. Anywhere in Guyana that is Guyana time: UTC-4 all year, with no daylight saving.
Yes: the Moon, bright planets as points of light, star fields and, with some phones at a dark site, the Milky Way. Hold the phone completely still on a tripod or something solid, use its night or long-exposure mode if it has one, turn the flash off, and tap to focus on the Moon or a bright star. What each phone can do depends on its maker’s night mode. Start with Introduction to Astrophotography.
A starting point: manual mode, RAW files, the widest aperture (f/1.4 to f/2.8), ISO 1600 to 6400, manual focus on a bright star, and a sturdy tripod. Keep each exposure short enough that stars stay points. The old 500 rule (500 divided by the focal length, then by your crop factor) gives 25 s at 20 mm on a full-frame camera, but modern high-resolution sensors show trails sooner. The NPF / Spot Stars Calculator gives a sharper limit for your camera and lens, and Milky Way Photography from Guyana walks through a whole session.
No. The Moon, bright planets, star clusters and the ISS look good to the naked eye or through binoculars, and wide Milky Way photos need only a camera and a tripod. A star tracker allows longer exposures, and a telescope matters mostly for close-up planets and faint deep-sky objects. Technique and a dark sky count for more than expensive gear. Start with the First Night Checklist.
Record a short video of the planet through a telescope, then let free software keep and stack the sharpest frames: PIPP to prepare the video, AutoStakkert! to stack it, and RegiStax or a similar tool to sharpen. Stacking beats the shimmer of the air. Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and the Moon make the best first targets; a tracking mount helps but is not essential. Planets Visible Tonight shows when each one is highest.
The free tools here cover most of it: the Milky Way Field Guide for where and when the core stands, Camera Field Framing to see what fits your lens, and the Star Trail Session Planner for trails. Stellarium, a free planetarium for computers and phones, is a good companion for finding your way around the sky.
Siril or DeepSkyStacker to stack star and deep-sky photos, PIPP and AutoStakkert! for planet videos, and GIMP to finish. To practise before you have your own data, the MAST archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute serves Hubble data free.
Dew forms when glass cools below the dew point, and on humid Guyana nights that often happens after midnight. Use a dew shield or a small dew heater, cap the optics between shots, and observe early in the night when the air is drier. Coming out of an air-conditioned room, keep the gear in a sealed bag until it warms up, or it fogs at once. Store lenses dry, with silica gel, to keep fungus away. The Dew Risk Calculator and the Dew and Monsoon Stargazing Playbook go further.
From Guyana Polaris is only about 6 to 7° up, and 3 to 4° at Lethem, so trees, haze or the mount itself often hide it. Set the mount’s latitude scale to your own (6.8° at Georgetown), point it north, then refine with drift alignment or your mount’s plate-solving routine. Some mounts cannot tilt that low, so check the latitude range before you buy. The Equatorial Imaging Pack picks the method for your latitude and rig, gives your compass correction and checks your mount’s range.
Most people buy online from retailers that ship to Guyana, so budget for shipping and import duties. In the tropics, choose gear that copes with humidity: a dew shield or heater and a sealed case help a lot. If you are unsure what to buy, email us with your budget and what you want to see, and we can suggest options.
Begin with Introduction to Astronomy, then take the First Night Checklist outside under a real sky. The Learn hub has free lessons on the Moon, the planets, seasons, finding objects and astrophotography, each linked to a tool to practise with.
Yes. The lessons and tools are free, need no account, and work on a projector or a phone. Moon phases, seasons, the planets and light pollution make good class or science-fair topics. They are not an official syllabus and are not accredited by CXC, CSEC or the Ministry of Education. For a school visit, see Workshops.
Not to enjoy it. Stargazing, astrophotography and citizen science need little more than arithmetic, and the lessons explain ideas in words and pictures first. Professional astronomy uses a lot of maths and physics, usually through a physics or astronomy degree.
We run stargazing evenings, workshops and school visits on request; no public sessions are scheduled right now. Public dates go out on our Instagram and Facebook pages, linked from Contact. To hear about dark, moonless evenings and sky events, sign up for Sky alerts.
Email us with the type of session, two or three possible dates, the location, and how many people will come and their ages. We offer school STEM sessions, stargazing evenings, astrophotography basics and safe solar viewing, and sessions for under-18s run with school staff or a parent present. Workshops has the details.
An astrophotography and astronomy-education project from Georgetown, Guyana, started in 2023. We publish night-sky photos, free sky tools and lessons that work anywhere on Earth, and run workshops and school visits on request. More in About us.
They are free, they need no account, and they run in any web browser on a phone or computer. The site shows no ads and does not sell your data. Sky alerts need only an email address.
Yes. Pick any place on Earth and the tools work out its sky, times and weather. Georgetown is only the starting place, and some lessons add local detail for Guyana’s coast and interior.
Positions of the Sun, Moon and planets come from Astronomy Engine, which we have checked against USNO and NASA JPL data, and rise and set times are usually right to within a few minutes. Weather is a forecast and can be wrong, ISS times depend on orbit data that ages over a few days, and trees or hills can hide a low object. Check official sources before travelling for an event; the Terms say more.
Sign up on Sky alerts with your email and location, and pick what you want: ISS passes, meteor peaks, visible eclipses, dark windows, the monthly evening sky and comets. Nothing is sent until you confirm by email, every message has an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing deletes your details.
It stays in your browser, saved so the tools remember it, unless you sign up for sky alerts, which store it rounded to about 1 km. To fetch weather, coordinates are sent to Open-Meteo without your name or email. The Privacy Policy has the details.
Not in an app store yet. Everything on the site works in your phone’s browser, with nothing to install.
You may share our photos with a credit and a link back; please ask before any commercial use. Images from NASA, ESA, ESO and others stay under their own licences and are credited where they appear. See the Terms.
Share the tools and lessons with friends and teachers, or make a voluntary donation. AstroPhotosGY is not a registered charity, so donations are not tax-deductible. Our supporters are on the Sponsors page.
Email it to us, and say where you observe from: most sky answers depend on the place.