YozoraAtlas

How dark is the sky in Rhode Island?

Sky darkness for 3 towns and parks in Rhode Island, worked out from NASA satellite images of light at night (2025). 1 of them has skies of Bortle 4 or darker, where the Milky Way shows overhead. The darkest is Montauk Point State Park (21.04, Bortle 4), the brightest Providence (17.60, Bortle 8). Milky Way season in Rhode Island runs April to August: on moonless nights the bright core stands clear of the horizon, climbing to about 20° 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 Rhode Island with every place marked

Darkest skies in Rhode Island

  1. Montauk Point State ParkBortle 421.04

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 Rhode Island

  1. ProvidenceBortle 817.60
  2. WarwickBortle 718.75

All 3 places in Rhode Island

Amber names are parks and certified dark-sky places. The figure is the Bortle class: 1 darkest, 9 city center.
Montauk Point State Park4Providence8Warwick7