How dark is the sky in Hungary?
Sky darkness for 71 towns and parks in Hungary, worked out from NASA satellite images of light at night (2025). 9 of them have skies of Bortle 4 or darker, where the Milky Way shows overhead. The darkest is Aggtelek National Park (21.49, Bortle 4), the brightest Budapest (17.95, Bortle 8).
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
Darkest skies in Hungary
- Aggtelek National ParkBorsod-Abaúj-Zemplén · Bortle 421.49
- Zselic National Landscape Protection AreaSomogy · Bortle 421.46
- Kiskunság National ParkBács-Kiskun · Bortle 421.35
- Hortobágy National ParkHajdú-Bihar · Bortle 421.21
- Bükk National ParkBorsod-Abaúj-Zemplén · Bortle 421.20
Among the places on this site. Plenty of land between them is just as dark, with no town or park to name it by.
Darkest place in each county of Hungary
| County | Places | Dark places Bortle 1 to 4 | Darkest place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baranya | 3 places | 0 dark | Komló20.39 · Bortle 5 |
| Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén | 5 places | 2 dark | Aggtelek National Park21.49 · Bortle 4 |
| Budapest | 1 place | 0 dark | Budapest17.95 · Bortle 8 |
| Bács-Kiskun | 5 places | 1 dark | Kiskunság National Park21.35 · Bortle 4 |
| Békés | 5 places | 2 dark | Körös-Maros National Park21.18 · Bortle 4 |
| Csongrád-Csanád | 4 places | 0 dark | Makó20.12 · Bortle 5 |
| Fejér | 2 places | 0 dark | Dunaújváros19.68 · Bortle 5 |
| Győr-Moson-Sopron | 4 places | 1 dark | Fertő-Hanság National Park20.99 · Bortle 4 |
| Hajdú-Bihar | 4 places | 1 dark | Hortobágy National Park21.21 · Bortle 4 |
| Heves | 3 places | 0 dark | Gyöngyös19.84 · Bortle 5 |
| Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok | 4 places | 0 dark | Karcag20.37 · Bortle 5 |
| Komárom-Esztergom | 4 places | 0 dark | Oroszlány20.02 · Bortle 5 |
| Nógrád | 1 place | 0 dark | Salgótarján20.25 · Bortle 5 |
| Pest | 10 places | 0 dark | Danube-Ipoly National Park20.37 · Bortle 5 |
| Somogy | 3 places | 1 dark | Zselic National Landscape Protection Area21.46 · Bortle 4 |
| Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg | 1 place | 0 dark | Nyíregyháza18.96 · Bortle 6 |
| Tolna | 3 places | 0 dark | Dombóvár20.37 · Bortle 5 |
| Vas | 1 place | 0 dark | Szombathely19.40 · Bortle 6 |
| Veszprém | 5 places | 0 dark | Balaton Uplands National Park20.40 · Bortle 5 |
| Zala | 3 places | 1 dark | Őrség National Park21.19 · Bortle 4 |