YozoraAtlas

How dark is the sky in Saxony-Anhalt?

Sky darkness for 6 towns and parks in Saxony-Anhalt, 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 Harz/Saxony-Anhalt Nature Park (21.44, Bortle 4), the brightest Magdeburg (19.21, Bortle 6). The bright core of the Milky Way never climbs clear of the horizon haze anywhere in Saxony-Anhalt while the sky is fully dark; the rest of the band passes overhead, with the longest moonless nights from September 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 Saxony-Anhalt with every place marked

Darkest skies in Saxony-Anhalt

  1. Harz/Saxony-Anhalt Nature ParkBortle 421.44
  2. Düben Heath Nature ParkBortle 421.17
  3. Unteres Saaletal Nature ParkBortle 421.07

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 Saxony-Anhalt

  1. MagdeburgBortle 619.21
  2. HalleBortle 619.27
  3. DessauBortle 520.03

All 6 places in Saxony-Anhalt

Amber names are parks and certified dark-sky places. The figure is the Bortle class: 1 darkest, 9 city center.
Dessau5Düben Heath Nature Park4Halle6Harz/Saxony-Anhalt Nature Park4Magdeburg6Unteres Saaletal Nature Park4