How to calculate the planet visibility times for a specified location and specified date?

[lulunac27a]

I want to know what time is the planet visible and when is the best time to see the planet at the best visibility at a specified location and a specified date.

[cosinekitty]

You can use SearchRiseSet to find the rise and set times of a planet. To find when a planet is highest in the sky, use SearchHourAngle and pass 0 as the hour angle. You can search for these functions in the documentation for whichever programming language you are using. I hope this helps!

[lulunac27a]

Something like Time and Date Night Sky section labeled Tonight's Sky in (location) like View before/after sunrise/sunset and Planets Visible in (location) where it has the comment column and In The Sky Ephemeris section labeled Observable (hover mouse).

[cosinekitty]

I think you have all the components you need in Astronomy Engine. To find when it is dark, you can use SearchAltitude for the Sun to find when nautical twilight ends after sunset, and when nautical twilight begins before sunrise. Once you know when it is dark, you can step through any desired time interval to calculate the horizontal positions of the planets. Take a look at the Horizon demo (there is one for each programming language, not just C#). It shows how to calculate the altitude and azimuth angle for each planet. As mentioned above, you can find exactly when the planet reaches the highest altitude angle using the zero hour angle method. This should be enough to create a GUI or other interface like you describe.

[lulunac27a]

I'm looking for when is the best time to see the planet visible in the sky. Like the planet altitude should be as high as possible, but it should be dark as much as possible (sun altitude should be as low as possible).

[lulunac27a]

Approximate formula:

-sin(planet altitude)*sin(sun altitude)

The planet altitude must be positive (visible in the sky) and the sun altitude must be negative (nighttime).

[lulunac27a]

The planet with lower number is brighter, so the planet will be more visible in same sun altitude, which the planet should appear with higher sun altitude but just below the horizon.