Category: Dispatches

Key takeaways New to the numbers? The Bortle scale runs from 1, the darkest skies left on Earth, to 9, an inner city where the constellations disappear. Sky brightness is measured in mag/arcsec², where a higher number means a darker sky. A Bortle 4 is where the Milky Way becomes obvious again, clearly visible well above the horizon, even…

Key takeaways New to the numbers? The Bortle scale runs from 1, the darkest skies left on Earth, to 9, an inner city where the constellations disappear. Sky brightness is measured in mag/arcsec², where a higher number means a darker sky. A Bortle 2 is a genuinely dark site, dark enough that your surroundings show only as silhouettes against…

Marfa gives you a brilliant night sky along with a mystery that’s confounded people for over a century, plus a food and art scene you wouldn’t expect from a town of under 2,000 people. It’s found in the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert, in a West Texas town small enough to walk end to end…

Key takeaways New to the numbers? The Bortle scale runs from 1, the darkest skies left on Earth, to 9, an inner city where the constellations disappear. Sky brightness is measured in mag/arcsec², where a higher number means a darker sky. A Bortle 5 is a suburban sky, dark enough that the Milky Way shows overhead on a good…

Most places on this list will reward you with spectacular skies. A handful will also give you a landscape that makes you question reality a little. Mauna Kea does both. You’re standing at the summit of the tallest mountain on Earth, depending on how you measure it — a volcano rising from the middle of…