Stargaze Atlas

Indiana dark-sky map — light pollution by town

82 towns rated · darkest: Cedar Lake · measured from VIIRS 2024 satellite night-lights

Indiana has 82 towns rated for light pollution here, from its darkest — Cedar Lake (Bortle 5) — to its brightest city cores. 0 rate as genuinely dark or rural sky (Bortle 4 or better). Sort the table by darkness to find the best stargazing near you, then open any town for its exact rating, what you can see, the nearest darker skies to drive to, and tonight's live Moon, cloud, and aurora conditions. Ratings are a VIIRS satellite proxy for planning, not survey-grade sky-brightness readings.

Statewide Indiana · VIIRS 2024
Towns rated
82

0 rate as genuinely dark or rural sky (about Bortle 4 or better).

Darkest town
Cedar Lake
Genuinely dark towns
0

All Indiana towns by darkness

Darkest sky first. Click a column heading to sort, or filter by name. A satellite reading, not a survey-grade measurement — and the real dark skies are usually a short drive out of any town.

Indiana towns, darkest sky first.
Sky
Cedar Lake 5 Suburban sky 7.6
North Madison 6 Bright suburban sky 11
Schererville 6 Bright suburban sky 11
Lake Station 6 Bright suburban sky 15
Yorktown 6 Bright suburban sky 16
Zionsville 6 Bright suburban sky 16
La Porte 6 Bright suburban sky 16
Connersville 6 Bright suburban sky 17
Chesterton 6 Bright suburban sky 17
Hobart 6 Bright suburban sky 17
Greencastle 6 Bright suburban sky 19
Crown Point 6 Bright suburban sky 20
Portage 7 Suburban / urban transition 21
Highland 7 Suburban / urban transition 22
Crawfordsville 7 Suburban / urban transition 22
Fairfield Heights 7 Suburban / urban transition 22
Shelbyville 7 Suburban / urban transition 23
New Castle 7 Suburban / urban transition 23
Beech Grove 7 Suburban / urban transition 24
Martinsville 7 Suburban / urban transition 25
Westfield 7 Suburban / urban transition 25
Bluffton 7 Suburban / urban transition 26
Plainfield 7 Suburban / urban transition 26
Logansport 7 Suburban / urban transition 26
Plymouth 7 Suburban / urban transition 26
Carmel 7 Suburban / urban transition 26
Goshen 7 Suburban / urban transition 26
Madison 7 Suburban / urban transition 26
Griffith 7 Suburban / urban transition 27
Gary 7 Suburban / urban transition 27
Greenfield 7 Suburban / urban transition 27
Saint John 7 Suburban / urban transition 28
Warsaw 7 Suburban / urban transition 28
Bedford 7 Suburban / urban transition 29
Broad Ripple 7 Suburban / urban transition 29
Greensburg 7 Suburban / urban transition 29
Brownsburg 7 Suburban / urban transition 30
Michigan City 7 Suburban / urban transition 30
New Haven 7 Suburban / urban transition 30
Dyer 7 Suburban / urban transition 31
Auburn 7 Suburban / urban transition 32
Granger 7 Suburban / urban transition 32
Avon 7 Suburban / urban transition 32
Lafayette 7 Suburban / urban transition 32
Noblesville 7 Suburban / urban transition 32
Valparaiso 7 Suburban / urban transition 33
Wabash 7 Suburban / urban transition 33
Huntington 7 Suburban / urban transition 34
Vincennes 7 Suburban / urban transition 34
Frankfort 7 Suburban / urban transition 35
Lebanon 7 Suburban / urban transition 36
Merrillville 7 Suburban / urban transition 36
Franklin 7 Suburban / urban transition 37
Seymour 7 Suburban / urban transition 37
Clarksville 7 Suburban / urban transition 37
Washington 7 Suburban / urban transition 38
Mishawaka 7 Suburban / urban transition 39
Hammond 7 Suburban / urban transition 39
Columbus 8 City sky 42
Jasper 8 City sky 44
Marion 8 City sky 45
Kokomo 8 City sky 45
Fort Wayne 8 City sky 46
Peru 8 City sky 47
Munster 8 City sky 49
Bloomington 8 City sky 50
Elkhart 8 City sky 53
Jeffersonville 8 City sky 54
Greenwood 8 City sky 54
Muncie 8 City sky 54
Anderson 8 City sky 55
New Albany 8 City sky 55
Richmond 8 City sky 61
Evansville 8 City sky 62
East Chicago 8 City sky 63
Lawrence 8 City sky 64
Terre Haute 8 City sky 72
Fishers 8 City sky 72
West Lafayette 8 City sky 73
Speedway 8 City sky 75
South Bend 9 Inner-city sky 108
Indianapolis 9 Inner-city sky 210

Frequently asked questions

Where are the darkest skies in Indiana?
The darkest town tracked here is Cedar Lake. Sort the table on this page by darkness to see the full ranking, from the most rural, star-filled skies down to the brightest city cores.
How many dark-sky towns does Indiana have?
Of 82 towns rated here, 0 rate as genuinely dark or rural sky (about Bortle 4 or better) — good for seeing the Milky Way on a clear, moonless night.
How are these light-pollution ratings measured?
From VIIRS 2024 annual-average satellite night-lights, sampled at each town's center and mapped to a darkness class and an estimated Bortle band. It is a satellite upward-radiance proxy for planning, not a survey-grade sky-brightness reading. See the methodology page for details.

Explore

Learn to read the Bortle scale, check the meteor shower calendar, or search all towns from the home page.