I’ve written extensively about various stargazing opportunities, from meteor showers to interesting planetary alignments, and I generally recommend finding a dark area for the best viewing results. But what does “dark” actually mean?

The increasing prevalence of light pollution caused by our cursed civilization has created a need for amateur astronomers to classify which areas of the night sky are dark enough for good stargazing. Enter the “Bortle Scale.” Created in 2000 by astronomer John E. Bortle, the scale divides darkness into nine levels, ranging from Class 1, the darkest skies, to Class 9, heavily light-polluted urban areas where you’d be lucky to see the North Star. Simply put, for the best stargazing, you want to be in a place with the lowest possible Bortle number.

Fortunately, there is technology that can instantly identify the Bortle number of any location on Earth. If you’re looking for the nearest darkest place, you can check out this Light Pollution Map , enter an address or global coordinates, and it will identify the amount of light pollution everywhere. Don’t be surprised if you have a hard time finding Zone 3 or lower: About 83 percent of the world’s population lives under light-polluted skies. In short, anywhere with even a small city has light pollution.

Xasteria: Astronomy Weather app