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

How dark is the sky in Wellington?

Sky darkness for 8 towns and parks in Wellington, 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 the Wairarapa Dark Sky Reserve (21.26, Bortle 4), the brightest Wellington (18.55, Bortle 7). Milky Way season in Wellington runs February to October: on moonless nights the bright core stands clear of the horizon, climbing to about 78° 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 Wellington with every place marked

Darkest skies in Wellington

  1. the Wairarapa Dark Sky ReserveBortle 421.26
  2. CartertonBortle 420.72

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 Wellington

  1. WellingtonBortle 718.55
  2. Lower HuttBortle 619.19
  3. PoriruaBortle 619.36
  4. Upper HuttBortle 519.79
  5. MastertonBortle 520.04

All 8 places in Wellington

Amber names are parks and certified dark-sky places. The figure is the Bortle class: 1 darkest, 9 city center.
Carterton4Lower Hutt6Masterton5Paraparaumu5Porirua6Upper Hutt5Wellington7the Wairarapa Dark Sky Reserve4