How dark is the sky in Quebec?
Sky darkness for 32 towns and parks in Quebec, worked out from NASA satellite images of light at night (2025). 17 of them have skies of Bortle 4 or darker, where the Milky Way shows overhead. The darkest is Anticosti National Park (21.94, Bortle 2), the brightest Montreal (17.46, 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
Darkest skies in Quebec
- Anticosti National ParkBortle 221.94
- Mingan Archipelago National Park ReserveBortle 321.89
- Gaspésie National ParkBortle 321.86
- Aiguebelle National ParkBortle 321.75
- Hautes-Gorges-de-la-Rivière-Malbaie National ParkBortle 321.70
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 Quebec
All 32 places in Quebec
Amber names are parks and certified dark-sky places. The figure is the Bortle class: 1 darkest, 9 city center.
Aiguebelle National Park3Anticosti National Park2Bic National Park4Drummondville7Forillon National Park4Gaspésie National Park3Gatineau8Granby7Grands-Jardins National Park4Hautes-Gorges-de-la-Rivière-Malbaie National Park3Jacques-Cartier National Park4La Mauricie National Park4Laval8Longueuil8Miguasha National Park4Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve3Mont-Mégantic4Mont-Tremblant National Park4Montreal8Monts-Valin National Park4Plaisance National Park4Quebec City8Repentigny8Saguenay8Saguenay Fjord National Park4Saint-Hyacinthe8Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu8Saint-Jérôme8Sherbrooke7Terrebonne8Trois-Rivières8Île-Bonaventure-et-du-Rocher-Percé National Park4