YozoraAtlas

How dark is the sky in Normandy?

Sky darkness for 4 towns and parks in Normandy, worked out from NASA satellite images of light at night (2025). None of them have skies of Bortle 4 or darker, where the Milky Way shows overhead. The darkest is Évreux (19.64, Bortle 5), the brightest Le Havre (18.76, Bortle 7). Milky Way season in Normandy runs May to June: on moonless nights the bright core stands clear of the horizon, climbing to about 12° at its highest.

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 Normandy with every place marked

Darkest skies in Normandy

  1. ÉvreuxBortle 519.64
  2. CaenBortle 519.59
  3. RouenBortle 618.99

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 Normandy

  1. Le HavreBortle 718.76

All 4 places in Normandy

Amber names are parks and certified dark-sky places. The figure is the Bortle class: 1 darkest, 9 city center.
Caen5Le Havre7Rouen6Évreux5