Portland, OR — light pollution & stargazing across the metro
The Portland, OR light dome covers 38 towns and about 1,877,441 people rated together, reading roughly Bortle 9 — a inner-city sky (very poor — city glow) — at Portland itself, measured from VIIRS 2024 satellite night-lights. The darkest edge of this same dome is Damascus, about 13 mi out, at roughly Bortle 5. Tonight's Moon phase, cloud cover, and aurora odds load live below, computed in your browser.
Stargazing at the Portland core tonight
- Estimated Bortle class (core)
- 9 of 9
- VIIRS radiance (core)
- 115 nW/cm²/sr
- Naked-eye limiting mag. (core)
- under 4.1
- Darkest edge of this dome
- Damascus · B5 · 13 mi
Inner-city sky.
What you can see from the Portland 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 Portland itself on a clear, moonless night run to about magnitude 4.0 or brighter, and the Milky Way is not visible. Damascus is a short hop away (13 mi) and improves to roughly Bortle 5.
Of the 38 towns rated in this dome, most read Bortle 6 (18 towns) — spread across 5 darkness classes overall. Beyond Portland itself, Vancouver, Gresham, Hillsboro round out the largest towns sharing this same light dome.
The sky from 45.5°N
Declination above +44.5° never sets here, and below −44.5° never rises — no matter how clear the night or how long you wait.
- Never sets: Polaris, the Big Dipper, Capella, Deneb
- Never rises: Canopus, Alpha Centauri, the Southern Cross
- Skims the southern horizon: Antares (peaks 18° up), the Milky Way core (peaks 15° up), Fomalhaut (peaks 15° up)
- Milky Way core: culminates 15.5° 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 30 m at the December solstice, 8 h 30 m in June.
- Midsummer: the Sun reaches only 21.0° below the horizon at solar midnight in June — past the 18° astronomical-night mark.
Geometric, from 45.523°N, 122.676°W. How these are computed.
Every town in this light dome, darkest first
All 38 towns inside Portland's ~35-mile dome, each with its own measured reading.
| Town | State | Bortle | Sky | Radiance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Damascus | OR | 5 | Suburban sky | 5.9 |
| Oatfield | OR | 5 | Suburban sky | 7.9 |
| Oak Grove | OR | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 10 |
| Saint Helens | OR | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 11 |
| Happy Valley | OR | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 13 |
| Sandy | OR | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 13 |
| Lake Oswego | OR | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 14 |
| Washougal | WA | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 14 |
| Bethany | OR | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 15 |
| Newberg | OR | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 16 |
| Oregon City | OR | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 17 |
| Salmon Creek | WA | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 17 |
| Camas | WA | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 18 |
| Five Corners | WA | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 18 |
| Forest Grove | OR | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 18 |
| Wilsonville | OR | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 19 |
| Woodburn | OR | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 19 |
| Sherwood | OR | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 20 |
| West Linn | OR | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 20 |
| Cornelius | OR | 6 | Bright suburban sky | 20 |
| Battle Ground | WA | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 21 |
| Oak Hills | OR | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 22 |
| Troutdale | OR | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 22 |
| Aloha | OR | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 23 |
| McMinnville | OR | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 24 |
| Gresham | OR | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 26 |
| Milwaukie | OR | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 27 |
| Cedar Mill | OR | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 28 |
| Gladstone | OR | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 29 |
| Canby | OR | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 29 |
| Hazel Dell | WA | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 30 |
| Tigard | OR | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 34 |
| Tualatin | OR | 7 | Suburban / urban transition | 37 |
| Vancouver | WA | 8 | City sky | 41 |
| Orchards | WA | 8 | City sky | 41 |
| Hillsboro | OR | 8 | City sky | 50 |
| Beaverton | OR | 8 | City sky | 51 |
| Portland | OR | 9 | Inner-city sky | 115 |
Certified dark-sky destinations near Portland
None of the 92 certified International Dark Sky Places sit within about 250 miles of Portland. The darkest option inside this same metro is Damascus, about 13 mi out.
Other light domes near Portland
Seattle, WA (145 mi, core Bortle 9) , Sacramento, CA (485 mi, core Bortle 9) , and San Francisco, CA (535 mi, core Bortle 8) 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 Portland?
- Not from Portland itself — at about Bortle 9 the dome is too bright. The darkest edge of the same metro is Damascus, about 13 mi out at roughly Bortle 5.
- How dark is the sky across the Portland metro?
- It varies by how close you are to the core. Portland itself reads about Bortle 9; the 38 towns in this light dome range down to Damascus at roughly Bortle 5, about 13 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 Portland?
- None of the 92 certified International Dark Sky Places sit within about 250 miles of Portland — the nearest genuinely darker option is Damascus within the metro itself.
A satellite proxy, not a survey-grade reading. Sources and limits.
More in Oregon
All Oregon towns · Bortle scale · Tonight's Moon · Dark-sky map