YozoraAtlasyo·zo·ra (夜空) n. [Jap.] night sky

How dark is the sky in Southland?

Sky darkness for 4 towns and parks in Southland, 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 Fiordland National Park (21.94, Bortle 2), the brightest Invercargill (19.60, Bortle 5). Milky Way season in Southland runs February to October: on moonless nights the bright core stands clear of the horizon, climbing to about 74° 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 Southland with every place marked

Darkest skies in Southland

  1. Fiordland National ParkBortle 221.94
  2. Stewart Island/RakiuraBortle 321.88

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 Southland

  1. InvercargillBortle 519.60
  2. GoreBortle 520.34

All 4 places in Southland

Amber names are parks and certified dark-sky places. The figure is the Bortle class: 1 darkest, 9 city center.
Fiordland National Park2Gore5Invercargill5Stewart Island/Rakiura3