About Miguel Beher | DarkHours
About the Author
I'm Miguel — a landscape astrophotographer who loves spending time under dark skies, and the developer behind DarkHours, a free, open-source tool for planning astrophotography shoots that models moon phase, weather, light pollution and other parameters that you want to know ahead of time.
My job provides me access to air travel, which means I'm able to go to clear, dark skies almost anywhere, usually the American Southwest, or wherever the forecast points. I built DarkHours because juggling separate apps for moon, weather, and light pollution every time I planned a shoot wasn't working, and I figured other photographers were doing the same.
My Gear & Packing for Flexibility
When taking flights for landscape astrophotography, efficiency is critical. My gear kit is minimal and built to be compact and lightweight without sacrificing stability or image quality. I primarily shoot with a Sony A6700 paired with a Viltrox 15mm f/1.7 lens. I use a Sirui Traveler X Carbon Fiber tripod. It's rigid and stable enough for long exposures, and small enough to fit inside a carry-on bag.
To track objects, I use an iOptron SkyTracker Pro and a custom compact rig I built that allows for accurate polar alignment without needing a scope or laser. I'll post about this build on the blog soon. While the core tripod, camera, and lens go everywhere, I pack other items as needed. If I am going somewhere I know it's allowed, I take my drone. If I plan to do time-lapse, I'll bring my DJI Action 5 Pro and an Ulanzi extendable tripod. It's usually one or the other or neither. I try to pack as light as possible.
Favorite Dark Sky locations
I like shooting mountains and red rock sandstone formations. Beyond recent trips to places like Zion, some of my favorite dark sky locations include the Knolls Recreation Area in Utah. Between Salt Lake City and the Bonneville Salt Flats on Interstate 80 in Utah, it's a beautifully desolate desert landscape managed by the BLM. Sedona, Arizona, is another favorite. Due to the geography, a short drive is usually enough to escape the minor city light dome and find pristine skies and dramatic landscapes. I also like the Lake Tahoe region, though I find it requires a bit more driving to fully clear the surrounding light domes.
Building & Validating DarkHours
The logistical challenge of juggling weather, light pollution, and moon phases is exactly why I built DarkHours. The project actually started as a command-line interface. I appreciate CLI tools because they easily combine with other utilities to generate useful data. I quickly realized that pulling frequent, real-time updates while outdoors was useful for adapting to changing conditions and plans. Since I do not travel with a laptop, I decided to build the project out into a full web application.
Validating DarkHours required field testing to ensure the predictive models were accurate. I ran the models against my historical shoots, matching GPS EXIF data, timestamps, landscape references, and star locations against the modeled visibility. I also cross checked outputs against third-party references, and began relying exclusively on the app to drive my trip planning in May 2026, prior to making it public.
The application's accuracy was proven during a June 2026 run to Zion National Park. A large part of the continental US was blanketed in cloudy or rainy forecasts. I used DarkHours to pinpoint Zion as the best of the options, while predicting the second night would cloud out. I hoped the model was overly pessimistic, but the forecast was accurate. I still walked away with great photos from the first night, showing me the system worked as designed.
What I'll post here
Mostly, this blog is a lot of photos, the shots I actually came home with from each trip, alongside the trip reports and field notes behind them. I'll also post the occasional update on what goes into building DarkHours itself.