Stargazing near Edmonton tonight

Elk Island's Beaver Hills DSP sits 45 minutes east — Alberta's closest true dark sky.

Updated: · Tonight: Friday, August 14, 2026

Best dark-sky site near Edmonton tonight

★ Best tonight

Elk Island

Beaver Hills, AB · Bortle 3 · 44 km away

Excellent 9h of clear sky (≤30% cloud) during tonight's astronomical night, mean cloud 1%.

Best clear window: Fri 6:00 p.m. – Sat 2:00 a.m. (9h, 1% 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)

Elk Island Lost on verdictRank to Jasper NP (but earlier rule decided).

Site Verdict Window Win cloud Min cloud Mean cloud Bortle Distance
★ Elk Island Excellent (5) 9h 1% 1% 1% 3 43.6 km
Jasper NP Good (4) 6h 1% 0% 33% 2 314.4 km
Prince Albert NP No-go (1) 0h — 99% 100% 2 469.6 km
Cypress Hills Good (4) 5h 9% 4% 49% 2 491.9 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 Edmonton

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: 1% (min 1%). 🔭 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

Elk Island

Beaver Hills, AB · Bortle 3 · 44 km away

Excellent 9h of clear sky (≤30% cloud) during tonight's astronomical night, mean cloud 1%.

Best clear window: Fri 6:00 p.m. – Sat 2:00 a.m. (9h, 1% mean cloud)

Moon: New moon · 2% illuminated

Open live forecast → Site guide

Jasper NP

Rocky Mountains, AB · Bortle 2 · 314 km away

Good 6h clear window during astronomical night, mean cloud 33%.

Best clear window: Fri 6:00 p.m. – Fri 11:00 p.m. (6h, 1% mean cloud)

Moon: New moon · 2% illuminated

Open live forecast → Site guide

Cypress Hills

AB/SK border · Bortle 2 · 492 km away

Good 5h clear window during astronomical night, mean cloud 49%.

Best clear window: Fri 10:00 p.m. – Sat 2:00 a.m. (5h, 9% mean cloud)

Moon: New moon · 2% illuminated

Open live forecast → Site guide

Frequently asked questions

Where can I stargaze near Edmonton tonight?

Tonight's best site near Edmonton is Elk Island (44 km away). Verdict: Excellent. 9h of clear sky (≤30% cloud) during tonight's astronomical night, mean cloud 1%.

What is the closest dark-sky site to Edmonton?

Elk Island is the closest, about 44 km from Edmonton (Bortle 3).

Can I see the Milky Way from Edmonton?

Edmonton'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 Elk Island, Jasper NP, Prince Albert NP, Cypress Hills.

When are northern lights visible near Edmonton?

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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