Stargazing near Sudbury tonight

Sudbury is the gateway to some of Ontario's darkest skies — Killarney, Manitoulin and the La Cloche range are all under 90 minutes away.

Updated: · Tonight: Friday, August 14, 2026

Best dark-sky site near Sudbury tonight

★ Best tonight

Bruce Peninsula

Bruce, ON · Bortle 3 · 146 km away

Excellent 10h of clear sky (≤30% cloud) during tonight's astronomical night, mean cloud 1%.

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

Bruce Peninsula Lost on windowHours to Killarney (but earlier rule decided).

Site Verdict Window Win cloud Min cloud Mean cloud Bortle Distance
Killarney Excellent (5) 4h 1% 0% 17% 2 61.4 km
Manitoulin (Gordon's Park) Excellent (5) 10h 2% 0% 2% 2 122.5 km
★ Bruce Peninsula Excellent (5) 10h 1% 0% 1% 3 146.4 km
Torrance Barrens Excellent (5) 8h 1% 0% 14% 3 211.4 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 Sudbury

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 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

Killarney

Georgian Bay, ON · Bortle 2 · 61 km away

Excellent 4h of clear sky (≤30% cloud) during tonight's astronomical night, mean cloud 17%.

Best clear window: Fri 5:00 p.m. – Fri 8:00 p.m. (4h, 1% mean cloud)

Moon: New moon · 2% illuminated

Open live forecast → Site guide

Manitoulin (Gordon's Park)

Manitoulin Island, ON · Bortle 2 · 122 km away

Excellent 10h of clear sky (≤30% cloud) during tonight's astronomical night, mean cloud 2%.

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

Moon: New moon · 2% illuminated

Open live forecast → Site guide

Bruce Peninsula

Bruce, ON · Bortle 3 · 146 km away

Excellent 10h of clear sky (≤30% cloud) during tonight's astronomical night, mean cloud 1%.

Best clear window: Fri 5:00 p.m. – Sat 2:00 a.m. (10h, 1% mean cloud)

Moon: New moon · 2% illuminated

Open live forecast → Site guide

Torrance Barrens

Muskoka, ON · Bortle 3 · 211 km away

Excellent 8h of clear sky (≤30% cloud) during tonight's astronomical night, mean cloud 14%.

Best clear window: Fri 5:00 p.m. – Sat 12:00 a.m. (8h, 1% mean cloud)

Moon: New moon · 2% illuminated

Open live forecast → Site guide

Frequently asked questions

Where can I stargaze near Sudbury tonight?

Tonight's best site near Sudbury is Bruce Peninsula (146 km away). Verdict: Excellent. 10h of clear sky (≤30% cloud) during tonight's astronomical night, mean cloud 1%.

What is the closest dark-sky site to Sudbury?

Killarney is the closest, about 61 km from Sudbury (Bortle 2).

Can I see the Milky Way from Sudbury?

Sudbury'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 Killarney, Manitoulin (Gordon's Park), Bruce Peninsula, Torrance Barrens.

When are northern lights visible near Sudbury?

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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