Light Pollution Map 2026 | Bortle Scale & Dark Sky

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Light Pollution

2025 OBS.

--BORTLE

Milky Way

Visible Stars

Sky brightness

How to read this sky

Choose a date or drag the yellow line. Before astronomical night, it defaults to tonight’s darkest zenith. The yellow-line value is the zenith brightness, not a whole-sky average.
The band shows representative brightness by direction. Panorama shows directions; Dome shows the whole sky. Natural view shows sky appearance, SQM scale compares places and times, and Local contrast finds relatively dark areas.
Higher Bortle means a brighter sky; higher SQM means a darker sky. Decimal Bortle values are brightness-based equivalents.
Turn off moonlight or hold “No moonlight” to compare with the location’s artificial-light baseline.

Clear-sky approximation, not an on-site SQM measurement. Clouds, haze, temporary lights, buildings, and trees are not included. No calculation is shown without astronomical night.

Tonight's light pollution

Calculating tonight by local time…

Horizon

Select a map location to render the sky.

Dark

Bright

Azimuth 0°–360° (N→E→S→W), altitude 0°–90°. SQM-proxy scale.

Calculating local visibility...

Start with four inputs. Camera calibration, session limits, and the full noise budget remain available when needed.

Recommended sub-exposure

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Sky-limited

Noise budget and session details

Frames--

Usable integration--

Capture duty cycle--

Sky background --Sensor read noise --Dark current --

Sky rate: --
Background per sub: --
Actual read-noise penalty: --
Stack SNR efficiency: --

Calculation model

t ≥ R² / ((B + D) × ((1 + p)² − 1))

The minimum sub keeps read noise within the selected penalty above sky and dark-current shot noise. It plans frame length, not absolute target SNR.

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