How dark is the sky in Lithuania?
Sky darkness for 38 towns and parks in Lithuania, worked out from NASA satellite images of light at night (2025). 23 of them have skies of Bortle 4 or darker, where the Milky Way shows overhead. The darkest is Aukštaitija National Park (21.72, Bortle 3), the brightest Vilnius (17.94, 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 Lithuania
- Aukštaitija National ParkUtena County · Bortle 321.72
- Gražutė Regional ParkUtena County · Bortle 321.71
- Varniai Regional ParkTelšiai County · Bortle 421.63
- Labanoras Regional ParkUtena County · Bortle 421.63
- Tytuvėnai Regional ParkŠiauliai County · Bortle 421.61
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 Lithuania
| County | Places | Dark places Bortle 1 to 4 | Darkest place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alytus County | 4 places | 3 dark | Dzūkija National Park21.59 · Bortle 4 |
| Kaunas County | 4 places | 1 dark | Nemunas Loops Regional Park21.05 · Bortle 4 |
| Klaipėda County | 4 places | 3 dark | Nemunas Delta Regional Park21.46 · Bortle 4 |
| Marijampolė County | 3 places | 2 dark | Vištytis Regional Park21.57 · Bortle 4 |
| Panevėžys County | 3 places | 2 dark | Krekenava Regional Park21.50 · Bortle 4 |
| Tauragė County | 3 places | 2 dark | Pagramantis Regional Park21.54 · Bortle 4 |
| Telšiai County | 4 places | 2 dark | Varniai Regional Park21.63 · Bortle 4 |
| Utena County | 5 places | 4 dark | Aukštaitija National Park21.72 · Bortle 3 |
| Vilnius County | 6 places | 3 dark | Dieveniškės Historical Regional Park21.52 · Bortle 4 |
| Šiauliai County | 2 places | 1 dark | Tytuvėnai Regional Park21.61 · Bortle 4 |