Milwaukee, WI — light pollution & stargazing across the metro
The Milwaukee, WI light dome covers 34 towns and about 1,519,920 people rated together, reading roughly Bortle 9 — a inner-city sky (very poor — city glow) — at Milwaukee itself, measured from VIIRS 2024 satellite night-lights. The darkest edge of this same dome is Caledonia, about 16 mi out, at roughly Bortle 4. The nearest certified dark-sky destination is Homer Glen, about 99 mi away. Tonight's Moon phase, cloud cover, and aurora odds load live below, computed in your browser.
Stargazing at the Milwaukee core tonight
- Estimated Bortle class (core)
- 9 of 9
- VIIRS radiance (core)
- 210 nW/cm²/sr
- Naked-eye limiting mag. (core)
- under 4.1
- Darkest edge of this dome
- Caledonia · B4 · 16 mi
Inner-city sky.
What you can see from the Milwaukee core
Only the Moon, the bright planets, and a scattering of the very brightest stars pierce the glow. For real stargazing you'll want to drive to a darker site.
At an estimated Bortle 9, the faintest stars visible from Milwaukee itself on a clear, moonless night run to about magnitude 4.0 or brighter, and the Milky Way is not visible. Caledonia is a regional drive away (16 mi) and improves to roughly Bortle 4.
Of the 34 towns rated in this dome, most read Bortle 7 (12 towns) — spread across 6 darkness classes overall. Beyond Milwaukee itself, Kenosha, Racine, Waukesha round out the largest towns sharing this same light dome.
The sky from 43.0°N
Declination above +47.0° never sets here, and below −47.0° never rises — no matter how clear the night or how long you wait.
- Never sets: Polaris, the Big Dipper
- Never rises: Canopus, Alpha Centauri, the Southern Cross
- Skims the southern horizon: the Milky Way core (peaks 18° up), Fomalhaut (peaks 17° up)
- Milky Way core: culminates 18.0° above the southern horizon — it sits low in the south, so a clear, unobstructed southern horizon matters more here than darkness overhead.
- Longest night: 15 h 11 m at the December solstice, 8 h 49 m in June.
- Midsummer: the Sun reaches only 23.5° below the horizon at solar midnight in June — past the 18° astronomical-night mark.
Geometric, from 43.039°N, 87.906°W. How these are computed.
Every town in this light dome, darkest first
All 34 towns inside Milwaukee's ~35-mile dome, each with its own measured reading.
| Town | State | Bortle | Sky | Radiance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caledonia | WI | 4 | Rural / suburban transition | 2.8 |
| Mequon | WI | 5 | Suburban sky | 3.4 |
| Pleasant Prairie | WI | 5 | Suburban sky | 6.3 |
| Franklin | WI | 5 | Suburban sky | 6.9 |
| Brookfield | WI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 8.4 |
| Richfield | WI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 8.4 |
| Muskego | WI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 12 |
| Oak Creek | WI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 13 |
| Port Washington | WI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 16 |
| Whitefish Bay | WI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 17 |
| Sussex | WI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 18 |
| Cedarburg | WI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 19 |
| Brown Deer | WI | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 19 |
| Hartford | WI | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 21 |
| Oconomowoc | WI | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 24 |
| Germantown | WI | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 25 |
| Greendale | WI | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 26 |
| Menomonee Falls | WI | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 29 |
| Grafton | WI | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 31 |
| New Berlin | WI | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 32 |
| Glendale | WI | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 32 |
| Burlington | WI | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 33 |
| Mount Pleasant | WI | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 34 |
| Shorewood | WI | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 39 |
| South Milwaukee | WI | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 40 |
| West Bend | WI | 8 | City sky | 40 |
| Racine | WI | 8 | City sky | 40 |
| Wauwatosa | WI | 8 | City sky | 42 |
| Cudahy | WI | 8 | City sky | 45 |
| Greenfield | WI | 8 | City sky | 52 |
| Waukesha | WI | 8 | City sky | 54 |
| West Allis | WI | 8 | City sky | 55 |
| Kenosha | WI | 8 | City sky | 73 |
| Milwaukee | WI | 9 | Inner-city sky | 210 |
Certified dark-sky destinations near Milwaukee
| Place | Designation | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Homer Glen | Dark Sky Community | 99 mi |
| Beverly Shores | Dark Sky Community | 105 mi |
| Potawatomi Wildlife Park | Dark-sky preserve | 155 mi |
| Newport State Park | Dark Sky Park | 160 mi |
| Middle Fork River Forest Preserve | Dark Sky Park | 185 mi |
| Lake Hudson State Recreation Area | Dark-sky preserve | 205 mi |
Other light domes near Milwaukee
Chicago, IL (83 mi, core Bortle 9) , Aurora, IL (91 mi, core Bortle 8) , and Indianapolis, IN (245 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 Milwaukee?
- Not from Milwaukee itself — at about Bortle 9 the dome is too bright. The darkest edge of the same metro is Caledonia, about 16 mi out at roughly Bortle 4, or drive to the certified Homer Glen (99 mi) for a genuinely dark sky.
- How dark is the sky across the Milwaukee metro?
- It varies by how close you are to the core. Milwaukee itself reads about Bortle 9; the 34 towns in this light dome range down to Caledonia at roughly Bortle 4, about 16 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 Milwaukee?
- Homer Glen (Dark Sky Community), about 99 mi away.
A satellite proxy, not a survey-grade reading. Sources and limits.
More in Wisconsin
All Wisconsin towns · Bortle scale · Tonight's Moon · Dark-sky map