YozoraAtlas

How dark is the sky in West Macedonia?

Sky darkness for 3 towns and parks in West Macedonia, 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 Prespa National Park (21.57, Bortle 4), the brightest Ptolemaïda (19.59, Bortle 5). Milky Way season in West Macedonia runs March to September: on moonless nights the bright core stands clear of the horizon, climbing to about 21° 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 West Macedonia with every place marked

Darkest skies in West Macedonia

  1. Prespa National ParkBortle 421.57

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 West Macedonia

  1. PtolemaïdaBortle 519.59
  2. KozaniBortle 519.65

All 3 places in West Macedonia

Amber names are parks and certified dark-sky places. The figure is the Bortle class: 1 darkest, 9 city center.
Kozani5Prespa National Park4Ptolemaïda5