Honolulu, HI — light pollution & stargazing across the metro
The Honolulu, HI light dome covers 34 towns and about 1,081,317 people rated together, reading roughly Bortle 8 — a city sky (very poor — city glow) — at Honolulu itself, measured from VIIRS 2024 satellite night-lights. The darkest edge of this same dome is Kalihi Valley, about 4 mi out, at roughly Bortle 4. Tonight's Moon phase, cloud cover, and aurora odds load live below, computed in your browser.
Stargazing at the Honolulu core tonight
- Estimated Bortle class (core)
- 8 of 9
- VIIRS radiance (core)
- 56 nW/cm²/sr
- Naked-eye limiting mag. (core)
- 4.1–4.5
- Darkest edge of this dome
- Kalihi Valley · B4 · 4 mi
City sky.
What you can see from the Honolulu core
The sky is bright enough to read by. Only the Moon, the planets, and the few brightest stars and clusters are visible — the constellations lose most of their fainter stars.
At an estimated Bortle 8, the faintest stars visible from Honolulu itself on a clear, moonless night run to about magnitude 4.1–4.5, and the Milky Way is not visible. Kalihi Valley is a short hop away (4 mi) and improves to roughly Bortle 4.
Of the 34 towns rated in this dome, most read Bortle 6 (16 towns) — spread across 5 darkness classes overall. Beyond Honolulu itself, East Honolulu, Pearl City, Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam round out the largest towns sharing this same light dome.
The sky from 21.3°N
Declination above +68.7° never sets here, and below −68.7° never rises — no matter how clear the night or how long you wait.
- Never sets: Polaris
- Skims the southern horizon: Canopus (peaks 16° up), Alpha Centauri (peaks 8° up), the Southern Cross (peaks 6° up)
- Milky Way core: culminates 39.7° above the southern horizon — it rides high in the south in summer, which is about as good as the core gets from the United States.
- Longest night: 13 h 18 m at the December solstice, 10 h 42 m in June.
- Midsummer: the Sun reaches only 45.3° below the horizon at solar midnight in June — past the 18° astronomical-night mark.
Geometric, from 21.307°N, 157.858°W. How these are computed.
Every town in this light dome, darkest first
All 34 towns inside Honolulu's ~35-mile dome, each with its own measured reading.
| Town | State | Bortle | Sky | Radiance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kalihi Valley | HI | 4 | Rural / suburban transition | 2.7 |
| Palolo | HI | 5 | Suburban sky | 3.0 |
| Kuliouou - Kalani Iki | HI | 5 | Suburban sky | 3.1 |
| Waianae | HI | 5 | Suburban sky | 4.7 |
| Nānākuli | HI | 5 | Suburban sky | 6.0 |
| Niu Valley | HI | 5 | Suburban sky | 6.1 |
| Kaneohe | HI | 5 | Suburban sky | 7.1 |
| East Honolulu | HI | 5 | Suburban sky | 7.8 |
| Makakilo | HI | 5 | Suburban sky | 7.8 |
| Manoa | HI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 8.1 |
| Mililani Town | HI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 9.9 |
| Mililani Mauka / Launani Valley | HI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 9.9 |
| Makakilo City | HI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 10 |
| Kailua | HI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 11 |
| Village Park | HI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 11 |
| Mililani Mauka | HI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 13 |
| Wahiawā | HI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 13 |
| Royal Kunia | HI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 13 |
| Aliamanu / Salt Lakes / Foster Village | HI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 15 |
| ‘Ewa Beach | HI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 16 |
| Waipio | HI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 16 |
| Schofield Barracks | HI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 17 |
| Hālawa Heights | HI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 17 |
| ‘Ewa Gentry | HI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 18 |
| Hālawa | HI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 19 |
| Diamond Head / Kapahulu / Saint Louis Heights | HI | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 23 |
| Kapolei | HI | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 25 |
| Waipahu | HI | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 25 |
| Kapolei Villages | HI | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 25 |
| Waimalu | HI | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 28 |
| Pearl City | HI | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 32 |
| Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam | HI | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 32 |
| Waikīkī | HI | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 38 |
| Honolulu | HI | 8 | City sky | 56 |
Certified dark-sky destinations near Honolulu
None of the 92 certified International Dark Sky Places sit within about 250 miles of Honolulu. The darkest option inside this same metro is Kalihi Valley, about 4 mi out.
Other light domes near Honolulu
San Francisco, CA (2,395 mi, core Bortle 8) , San Jose, CA (2,415 mi, core Bortle 8) , and Sacramento, CA (2,460 mi, core Bortle 9) are the closest other metro-scale domes tracked here — each with its own core reading and its own darkest edge.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you see the Milky Way from Honolulu?
- Not from Honolulu itself — at about Bortle 8 the dome is too bright. The darkest edge of the same metro is Kalihi Valley, about 4 mi out at roughly Bortle 4.
- How dark is the sky across the Honolulu metro?
- It varies by how close you are to the core. Honolulu itself reads about Bortle 8; the 34 towns in this light dome range down to Kalihi Valley at roughly Bortle 4, about 4 mi from the core. The table above sorts every town in the metro by measured darkness.
- Where's the nearest certified dark-sky destination to Honolulu?
- None of the 92 certified International Dark Sky Places sit within about 250 miles of Honolulu — the nearest genuinely darker option is Kalihi Valley within the metro itself.
A satellite proxy, not a survey-grade reading. Sources and limits.
More in Hawaii
All Hawaii towns · Bortle scale · Tonight's Moon · Dark-sky map