YozoraAtlas

How dark is the sky in New Jersey?

Sky darkness for 17 towns and parks in New Jersey, worked out from NASA satellite images of light at night (2025). None of them have skies of Bortle 4 or darker, where the Milky Way shows overhead. The darkest is Jackson (19.07, Bortle 6), the brightest Newark (16.87, 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

NASA satellite night-lights map of New Jersey with every place marked

Darkest skies in New Jersey

  1. JacksonBortle 619.07
  2. MiddletownBortle 718.53
  3. VinelandBortle 818.35

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 New Jersey

  1. NewarkBortle 816.87
  2. Jersey CityBortle 817.03
  3. ElizabethBortle 817.12
  4. PatersonBortle 817.42
  5. Cherry HillBortle 817.69

All 17 places in New Jersey

Amber names are parks and certified dark-sky places. The figure is the Bortle class: 1 darkest, 9 city center.
Brick8Cherry Hill8Edison8Elizabeth8Jackson6Jersey City8Lakewood8Middletown7Newark8Parsippany8Paterson8Perth Amboy8Plainfield8Toms River8Trenton8Vineland8Wayne8