YozoraAtlas

How dark is the sky in Nova Scotia?

Sky darkness for 6 towns and parks in Nova Scotia, worked out from NASA satellite images of light at night (2025). 4 of them have skies of Bortle 4 or darker, where the Milky Way shows overhead. The darkest is Sable Island National Park Reserve (21.95, Bortle 2), the brightest Halifax (17.94, Bortle 8).

19 Bortle class, 1 pristine to 9 city center park or dark-sky place city

Numbers like 21.95 or 16.97 are the brightness of the sky overhead on a clear, moonless night, in mag/arcsec². The scale runs backwards: a lower number means a brighter sky, from about 22 for a natural sky to about 17 in a city center.
How the readings are made

NASA satellite night-lights map of Nova Scotia with every place marked

Darkest skies in Nova Scotia

  1. Sable Island National Park ReserveBortle 221.95
  2. Cape Breton Highlands National ParkBortle 321.87
  3. Kejimkujik National ParkBortle 321.79
  4. Blomidon Provincial ParkBortle 421.61

Among the places on this site. Plenty of land between them is just as dark, with no town or park to name it by.

Brightest city skies in Nova Scotia

  1. HalifaxBortle 817.94
  2. SydneyBortle 718.76

All 6 places in Nova Scotia

Amber names are parks and certified dark-sky places. The figure is the Bortle class: 1 darkest, 9 city center.
Blomidon Provincial Park4Cape Breton Highlands National Park3Halifax8Kejimkujik National Park3Sable Island National Park Reserve2Sydney7