YozoraAtlas

How dark is the sky in Saxony?

Sky darkness for 8 towns and parks in Saxony, worked out from NASA satellite images of light at night (2025). 2 of them have skies of Bortle 4 or darker, where the Milky Way shows overhead. The darkest is Saxon Switzerland National Park (21.30, Bortle 4), the brightest Leipzig (18.86, Bortle 7). The bright core of the Milky Way never climbs clear of the horizon haze anywhere in Saxony 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 with every place marked

Darkest skies in Saxony

  1. Saxon Switzerland National ParkBortle 421.30
  2. Zittau Mountains Nature ParkBortle 421.05

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

  1. LeipzigBortle 718.86
  2. DresdenBortle 619.01
  3. ChemnitzBortle 619.37
  4. ZwickauBortle 519.78
  5. GörlitzBortle 519.80

All 8 places in Saxony

Amber names are parks and certified dark-sky places. The figure is the Bortle class: 1 darkest, 9 city center.
Chemnitz6Dresden6Görlitz5Leipzig7Plauen5Saxon Switzerland National Park4Zittau Mountains Nature Park4Zwickau5