How dark is the sky in Poland?
Sky darkness for 159 towns and parks in Poland, worked out from NASA satellite images of light at night (2025). 76 of them have skies of Bortle 4 or darker, where the Milky Way shows overhead. The darkest is the Bieszczady Starry Sky Park (21.76, Bortle 3), the brightest Warsaw (17.84, 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 Poland
- the Bieszczady Starry Sky ParkSubcarpathia · Bortle 321.76
- Białowieża National ParkPodlaskie · Bortle 321.74
- Puszcza Romincka Landscape ParkWarmia-Masuria · Bortle 421.68
- Sobibór Landscape ParkLublin · Bortle 421.67
- Słowiński National ParkPomerania · Bortle 421.62
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 province of Poland
| Province | Places | Dark places Bortle 1 to 4 | Darkest place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Greater Poland | 14 places | 6 dark | Warta Landscape Park20.99 · Bortle 4 |
| Kuyavia-Pomerania | 12 places | 7 dark | Brodnica Landscape Park21.40 · Bortle 4 |
| Lesser Poland | 10 places | 6 dark | Poprad Landscape Park21.08 · Bortle 4 |
| Lower Silesia | 17 places | 10 dark | Śnieżnik Landscape Park21.33 · Bortle 4 |
| Lublin | 11 places | 7 dark | Sobibór Landscape Park21.67 · Bortle 4 |
| Lubusz | 5 places | 3 dark | Gryżyna Landscape Park21.34 · Bortle 4 |
| Mazovia | 8 places | 1 dark | Kampinos National Park20.52 · Bortle 4 |
| Opole | 4 places | 2 dark | Stobrawa Landscape Park21.11 · Bortle 4 |
| Podlaskie | 10 places | 7 dark | Białowieża National Park21.74 · Bortle 3 |
| Pomerania | 10 places | 6 dark | Słowiński National Park21.62 · Bortle 4 |
| Silesia | 19 places | 2 dark | Sopotnia Wielka20.96 · Bortle 4 |
| Subcarpathia | 8 places | 3 dark | the Bieszczady Starry Sky Park21.76 · Bortle 3 |
| Warmia-Masuria | 8 places | 5 dark | Puszcza Romincka Landscape Park21.68 · Bortle 4 |
| West Pomerania | 7 places | 4 dark | Drawsko Landscape Park21.60 · Bortle 4 |
| Łódź | 10 places | 4 dark | Warta-Widawka Landscape Park21.13 · Bortle 4 |
| Świętokrzyskie | 6 places | 3 dark | Przedbórz Landscape Park21.24 · Bortle 4 |