YozoraAtlas

How dark is the sky in Ohio?

Sky darkness for 17 towns and parks in Ohio, 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 Wayne National Forest (20.78, Bortle 4), the brightest Columbus (17.22, 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 Ohio with every place marked

Darkest skies in Ohio

  1. Wayne National ForestBortle 420.78
  2. Hocking Hills State ParkBortle 420.62

Among the places on this site. Plenty of land between them is just as dark, with no town or park to name it by.

Brightest city skies in Ohio

  1. ColumbusBortle 817.22
  2. ClevelandBortle 817.26
  3. CincinnatiBortle 817.40
  4. DaytonBortle 817.46
  5. AkronBortle 817.60

All 17 places in Ohio

Amber names are parks and certified dark-sky places. The figure is the Bortle class: 1 darkest, 9 city center.
Akron8Canton8Cincinnati8Cleveland8Columbus8Cuyahoga Valley National Park6Dayton8Elyria8Hamilton8Hocking Hills State Park4Lakewood8Lorain7Parma8Springfield8Toledo8Wayne National Forest4Youngstown8