Stargazing near Boston tonight

Acadia (ME) and Katahdin Woods & Waters are New England's darkest — 4–6h drive.

Updated: · Tonight: Friday, August 14, 2026

Best dark-sky site near Boston tonight

★ Best tonight

Mont-Mégantic

Eastern Townships, QC · Bortle 2 · 344 km away

Excellent 10h of clear sky (≤30% cloud) during tonight's astronomical night, mean cloud 0%.

Best clear window: Fri 4:00 p.m. – Sat 1:00 a.m. (10h, 0% mean cloud)

Moon: New moon · 2% illuminated

Open live forecast → Site guide

How we picked tonight's best site

Show ranking debug panel (4 candidates, 7-level tie-break)

Mont-Mégantic Lost on bortle to Acadia (but earlier rule decided).

Site Verdict Window Win cloud Min cloud Mean cloud Bortle Distance
Acadia Excellent (5) 10h 0% 0% 0% 4 314.8 km
★ Mont-Mégantic Excellent (5) 10h 0% 0% 0% 2 344.2 km
Katahdin Woods Excellent (5) 10h 0% 0% 0% 2 456.3 km
La Mauricie Excellent (5) 9h 0% 0% 0% 3 511.7 km

★ = chosen by tie-break ladder. Lower cloud %, lower Bortle, lower distance = better. Higher windowHours = better.

Tie-break ladder (in order)

  1. verdictRank (desc) — Excellent > Good > Fair > Poor > No-go
  2. windowHours (desc) — Longer clear window wins
  3. windowMeanCloudPct (asc) — Cleaner sky inside the window
  4. tonightMinCloudPct (asc) — Best moment of the night
  5. tonightMeanCloudPct (asc) — Overall sky quality
  6. bortle (asc) — Darker site wins
  7. distanceKm (asc) — Closer wins last

Same metrics are exposed at snapshot.json as bestTonight.tieBreak and closestSites[].tieBreak.

Understand tonight's forecast for Boston

Each verdict above blends four limiting factors. Tap a card to learn what it measures, where the number comes from, and how to use it.

📖 How to read the forecast Plain-English breakdown of every row, color and score. 🌙 Moon & tonight's window New moon · 2% illuminated ☁️ Cloud cover & sky score Mean cloud tonight: 0% (min 0%). 🔭 Transparency How clean the air column is — controls how faint a star you can see. 🔥 Smoke & AQI Wildfire smoke and PM2.5 from US-AQI — kills transparency before clouds do.

All 4 closest sites, ranked by distance

Acadia

Coastal ME · Bortle 4 · 315 km away

Excellent 10h of clear sky (≤30% cloud) during tonight's astronomical night, mean cloud 0%.

Best clear window: Fri 4:00 p.m. – Sat 1:00 a.m. (10h, 0% mean cloud)

Moon: New moon · 2% illuminated

Open live forecast → Site guide

Mont-Mégantic

Eastern Townships, QC · Bortle 2 · 344 km away

Excellent 10h of clear sky (≤30% cloud) during tonight's astronomical night, mean cloud 0%.

Best clear window: Fri 4:00 p.m. – Sat 1:00 a.m. (10h, 0% mean cloud)

Moon: New moon · 2% illuminated

Open live forecast → Site guide

Katahdin Woods

Northern ME · Bortle 2 · 456 km away

Excellent 10h of clear sky (≤30% cloud) during tonight's astronomical night, mean cloud 0%.

Best clear window: Fri 4:00 p.m. – Sat 1:00 a.m. (10h, 0% mean cloud)

Moon: New moon · 2% illuminated

Open live forecast → Site guide

La Mauricie

Central QC · Bortle 3 · 512 km away

Excellent 9h of clear sky (≤30% cloud) during tonight's astronomical night, mean cloud 0%.

Best clear window: Fri 5:00 p.m. – Sat 1:00 a.m. (9h, 0% mean cloud)

Moon: New moon · 2% illuminated

Open live forecast → Site guide

Frequently asked questions

Where can I stargaze near Boston tonight?

Tonight's best site near Boston is Mont-Mégantic (344 km away). Verdict: Excellent. 10h of clear sky (≤30% cloud) during tonight's astronomical night, mean cloud 0%.

What is the closest dark-sky site to Boston?

Acadia is the closest, about 315 km from Boston (Bortle 4).

Can I see the Milky Way from Boston?

Boston's urban sky is too light-polluted for naked-eye Milky Way. For a clear view of the galactic band, drive to a Bortle 1–3 site such as Mont-Mégantic, Katahdin Woods, La Mauricie.

When are northern lights visible near Boston?

Aurora is visible during geomagnetic storms with Kp ≥ 5–6. Check the live aurora outlook and head to the closest dark site with a clean northern horizon.

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