New Zealand mountain
Aoraki / Mount Cook
Bortle 1: excellent dark sky. Tonight's real sky above it, live.
Calculating the sky…
Drag to turn round. Stars from the HYG catalogue; glow and horizon from the light model and the terrain.
The usual sky here
Bortle 1.
The zodiacal light and the gegenschein are visible; the Milky Way casts shadows; your own hand is hard to see.
Our own rating, from verifiable data only: sky brightness (60 points), clear nights (25), open horizon (10) and altitude (5).
- 1Excellent dark sky≥ 21.89 · stars to mag 7.6 You are here
- 2Truly dark sky21.69–21.89 · stars to mag 7.1
- 3Rural sky21.25–21.69 · stars to mag 6.6
- 4Rural–suburban transition20.49–21.25 · stars to mag 6.1
- 5Suburban sky19.50–20.49 · stars to mag 5.6
- 6Bright suburban sky18.94–19.50 · stars to mag 5.1
- 7Suburban–urban transition18.38–18.94 · stars to mag 4.6
- 8City sky17.80–18.38 · stars to mag 4.1
- 9Inner-city sky< 17.80 · stars to mag 3.6
- 21.90Sky brightnessmag/arcsec² at the zenith — 21.9 is a natural sky
- 6.6Faintest starthe faintest magnitude the naked eye can see here
- 201 kmNearest big townover 50,000 people, in a straight line
- 3,724 mAltitudeabove the sea: less air and haze above you
- 100%Open skyof the half-sphere the relief leaves visible
Where the light comes from
The brightest glow on the horizon comes from Rolleston, 181 km to the east.
Each wedge is how much artificial light arrives from that direction (10° slices).
An estimate of the usual sky with no Moon and no clouds, from NASA's night-lights map and a light-propagation model (about ±0.3 mag). A given night depends on the Moon, the clouds, dust and humidity.
When to go
Best from May to July.
Hours of truly dark night, hours with the core of the Milky Way up, how often the sky is clear and the coldest night, month by month.
- 4.5h34%-10°Jan
- 6.7h38%-10°Feb
- 8.3h39%-11°Mar
- 9.8h40%-13°Apr
- 11h39%-15°May
- 12h41%-17°Jun
- 11h40%-18°Jul
- 10h38%-17°Aug
- 9.0h34%-16°Sep
- 7.3h32%-15°Oct
- 5.3h30%-14°Nov
- 4.0h30%-12°Dec
- Dark night (hours)
- Milky Way core up
- Clear sky
- Coldest night
- Best months
The Moon, night by night
A bright Moon washes out the faint stars. The highlighted nights are the dark ones (less than a quarter lit); below, the next new moons.
- 9 Nov2026
- 9 Dec2026
- 7 Jan2027
- 6 Feb2027
- 8 Mar2027
- 6 Apr2027
Night: Sun more than 18° below the horizon. Milky Way: the galactic centre more than 10° up during that night. Clear sky: 100 − NASA cloud amount (2001–2020). Coldest: average minimum brought to this altitude.
What happens in this sky
Meteors, eclipses, auroras.
Meteor showers
The next twelve months. The rate is what a dark sky shows with the radiant at its highest here; the Moon decides the rest.
- Orionidspeak 21 Oct 2026 · up to 10 meteors an hourMoon 68% lit at the peak
- Leonidspeak 17 Nov 2026 · up to 6 meteors an hourMoon 42% lit at the peak
- Eta Aquariidspeak 6 May 2027 · up to 37 meteors an hourMoon 1% lit at the peak
- Southern Delta Aquariidspeak 30 Jul 2027 · up to 22 meteors an hourMoon 20% lit at the peak
Eclipses
Lunar eclipses visible from here, and solar eclipses whose path crosses this country.
- Partial lunar eclipse6 july 2028Moon 20° up at mid-eclipse · 140 min
- Total lunar eclipse31 december 2028Moon 2° up at mid-eclipse · 71 min
- Partial lunar eclipse15 june 2030Moon 17° up at mid-eclipse · 143 min
- Total lunar eclipse25 april 2032Moon 45° up at mid-eclipse · 66 min
- Total solar eclipse22 july 2028the path crosses this country — check the exact line before you go
Auroras
Only extreme storms (Kp 8.7+) bring auroras this far — as in May 2024.
- 0quiet
- 1
- 2
- 3active
- 4
- 5storm
- 6
- 7strong
- 8
- 9extreme
Estimate from the geomagnetic latitude (dipole model) and NOAA's oval boundaries. Watch the live Kp forecast before going out.
Meteor dates: International Meteor Organization peaks. Lunar eclipses: computed (J. Meeus) and shown only when the Moon is above this horizon. Solar eclipses: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC (country on the path).
The place
Aoraki / Mount Cook.
Mountain in the Southern Alps of New Zealand
Aoraki / Mount Cook is a mountain in New Zealand, 3,724 m above the sea.
Its usual sky, with no Moon or clouds, is estimated at 21.90 mag/arcsec² — Bortle 1, excellent dark sky: the naked eye reaches stars of magnitude 6.6.
The nearest town of over 50,000 people is 201 km away.
The best months are from May to July: long dark nights and clearer skies.
The core of the Milky Way rises up to 75° above the horizon, and is up during the dark hours from February to October.
The horizon is open all round: nothing in the relief rises more than 3°.
Visit and sleep under the stars
- Bivouac sitecampsite · 9.8 km · 2 within 10 km
- Hooker Hut (removed)place to stay · 7.9 km · 1 within 10 km
- Timaru Airport (TIU)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 117 km in a straight lineCar hire in TimaruDiscover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the night
A guided night, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The horizon
360° around you.
The silhouette of the relief up to 30 km away (Copernicus DEM), with the light domes of the towns where they rise. Mountains are drawn taller than they are, to be seen.
Around, in OpenStreetMap
- 1observatories and planetariums within 30 km
- 38named peaks within 5 kmAoraki / Mount Cook, Te Horokōau / Mount Tasman, Turner Peak and 35 more
- 5shelters and huts within 5 kmEmpress Hut, Haast Hut, Plateau Hut and 2 more
- 2campsites within 10 kmBivouac site
- 1places to stay within 10 kmHooker Hut (removed)
- viewpoints within 5 km
- marked trails within 3 km
- car parks within 3 km
- visitor centres within 5 km
- restaurants and cafés within 5 km
- street lamps mapped within 2 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
In our other atlases
Around it, by day.
The mountain, island, lake, beach or canyon this place is, and what else is nearby in the family's atlases.
Peakyas248 mountains within 25 km
Lakeyas2 lakes within 15 km
Cascadyas9 waterfalls within 15 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Photographs
By day and by night.
Other skies nearby.
Aoraki / Mount Cook
New Zealand
- 85Darkskyas Score
- 21.90Sky brightness
- 1Bortle
- 3,724 mAltitude
Mount Tasman
New Zealand · 3 km
- 85Darkskyas Score
- 21.90Sky brightness
- 1Bortle
- 3,497 mAltitude
South Island
New Zealand · 21 km
- 85Darkskyas Score
- 21.90Sky brightness
- 1Bortle
- 2,716 mAltitude
Mount John University Observatory
New Zealand · 51 km
- 81Darkskyas Score
- 21.89Sky brightness
- 1Bortle
- 1,029 mAltitude
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, certification | Wikidata (Q5059) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Sky brightness | NASA Earth Observatory, Black Marble 2016 (Suomi NPP VIIRS) · Darkskyas light model (Walker's law, fitted to 18 measured sites) |
| Night, Moon, Milky Way, stars | J. Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms · HYG v4.4 · Stellarium modern_iau (CC BY-SA 4.0) |
| Horizon and altitude | Copernicus DEM GLO-90 / GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Clouds and temperature | NASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2) |
| Solar eclipses | Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC |
| What is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Sister atlases | Peakyas, Islandyas, Lakeyas, Cascadyas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.
beaches
Find your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Visit mountains
Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Visit 
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Visit 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit 
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Visit 
caves
Every cave with its real depth and length: the rock above, the temperature inside all year, and how to visit.Visit 
dark skies
Where the night is still dark: the sky of every place, the Milky Way month by month, the Moon, eclipses and auroras.You are here
viewpoints
Every viewpoint with its real 360° panorama: the peaks you can name, how far you see and where the sun sets.Coming soonVisit 
birdwatching
Every bird sanctuary and wetland with the species recorded month by month: who is resident, who comes for the summer, who only passes through.Coming soonVisit 
forests
Every forest with its land-cover rings, what grows and lives in it, and the best months to walk it.Coming soonVisit