YozoraAtlas

How dark is the sky in Sardinia?

Sky darkness for 6 towns and parks in Sardinia, 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 Gennargentu National Park (21.61, Bortle 4), the brightest Cagliari (18.80, Bortle 7). Milky Way season in Sardinia runs March to September: on moonless nights the bright core stands clear of the horizon, climbing to about 22° 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 Sardinia with every place marked

Darkest skies in Sardinia

  1. Gennargentu National ParkBortle 421.61
  2. Porto Conte Regional Natural ParkBortle 421.25

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 Sardinia

  1. CagliariBortle 718.80
  2. SassariBortle 618.99
  3. OlbiaBortle 619.28
  4. Quartu Sant'ElenaBortle 520.07

All 6 places in Sardinia

Amber names are parks and certified dark-sky places. The figure is the Bortle class: 1 darkest, 9 city center.
Cagliari7Gennargentu National Park4Olbia6Porto Conte Regional Natural Park4Quartu Sant'Elena5Sassari6