YozoraAtlas

How dark is the sky in Capital Region?

Sky darkness for 2 towns and parks in Capital Region, worked out from NASA satellite images of light at night (2025). None of them have skies of Bortle 4 or darker, where the Milky Way shows overhead. The darkest is Mosfellsbær (18.63, Bortle 7), the brightest Reykjavík (17.59, Bortle 8). The bright core of the Milky Way never climbs clear of the horizon haze anywhere in Capital Region while the sky is fully dark; the rest of the band passes overhead, with the longest moonless nights from October 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 Capital Region with every place marked

Darkest skies in Capital Region

  1. MosfellsbærBortle 718.63
  2. ReykjavíkBortle 817.59

Among the places on this site. Plenty of land between them is just as dark, with no town or park to name it by.

All 2 places in Capital Region

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