YozoraAtlas

How dark is the sky in Central Finland?

Sky darkness for 4 towns and parks in Central Finland, worked out from NASA satellite images of light at night (2025). 3 of them have skies of Bortle 4 or darker, where the Milky Way shows overhead. The darkest is Salamajärvi National Park (21.67, Bortle 4), the brightest Jyväskylä (17.75, Bortle 8). The bright core of the Milky Way never climbs clear of the horizon haze anywhere in Central Finland while the sky is fully dark; the rest of the band passes overhead, with the longest moonless nights from October to March.

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 Central Finland with every place marked

Darkest skies in Central Finland

  1. Salamajärvi National ParkBortle 421.67
  2. Pyhä-Häkki National ParkBortle 421.65
  3. Leivonmäki National ParkBortle 421.51

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 Central Finland

  1. JyväskyläBortle 817.75

All 4 places in Central Finland

Amber names are parks and certified dark-sky places. The figure is the Bortle class: 1 darkest, 9 city center.
Jyväskylä8Leivonmäki National Park4Pyhä-Häkki National Park4Salamajärvi National Park4