How dark is the sky in Nebraska?
Sky darkness for 13 towns and parks in Nebraska, worked out from NASA satellite images of light at night (2025). 8 of them have skies of Bortle 4 or darker, where the Milky Way shows overhead. The darkest is Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest (21.91, Bortle 2), the brightest Omaha (17.20, 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 Nebraska
- Samuel R. McKelvie National ForestBortle 221.91
- Agate Fossil Beds National MonumentBortle 321.84
- Pine Ridge National Recreation AreaBortle 321.81
- Ash Hollow State Historical ParkBortle 321.75
- Nebraska National ForestBortle 421.69
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 Nebraska
All 13 places in Nebraska
Amber names are parks and certified dark-sky places. The figure is the Bortle class: 1 darkest, 9 city center.
Agate Fossil Beds National Monument3Ash Hollow State Historical Park3Bellevue7Grand Island8Homestead National Historical Park4Indian Cave State Park4John G. Neihardt State Historic Site4Lincoln8Nebraska National Forest4Omaha8Pine Ridge National Recreation Area3Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest2Scotts Bluff National Monument5