YozoraAtlas

How dark is the sky in Crete?

Sky darkness for 4 towns and parks in Crete, worked out from NASA satellite images of light at night (2025). 1 of them has skies of Bortle 4 or darker, where the Milky Way shows overhead. The darkest is Samaria National Park (21.71, Bortle 3), the brightest Heraklion (19.25, Bortle 6). Milky Way season in Crete runs March to September: on moonless nights the bright core stands clear of the horizon, climbing to about 26° 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 Crete with every place marked

Darkest skies in Crete

  1. Samaria National ParkBortle 321.71

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 Crete

  1. HeraklionBortle 619.25
  2. ChaniaBortle 619.41
  3. RethymnoBortle 519.82

All 4 places in Crete

Amber names are parks and certified dark-sky places. The figure is the Bortle class: 1 darkest, 9 city center.
Chania6Heraklion6Rethymno5Samaria National Park3