Welcome to CPRE’s interactive maps of England’s light pollution and dark skies, where you can find out more about our work and how you can help.
Welcome to CPRE’s interactive maps of England’s light pollution and dark skies, where you can find out more about our work and how you can help.
How far do you have to go to find a truly dark sky? Is your neighbourhood surrounded by bright lights that are on throughout the night? Or do you work for a local or county council that can influence lighting, either through planning policies or the management of street lighting?
Whatever your reason for visiting this site, welcome to CPRE’s maps of Britain’s light pollution and dark skies: the most detailed national maps on this subject created for Britain.
CPRE has long been a leading voice in the campaign against light pollution. We’re concerned that, even in the depths of the countryside, genuine dark starry nights are becoming harder to find. So we commissioned new maps to find out how light pollution is distributed around the country and where the darkest skies are.
Our interactive map shows how much light is spilling up into the night sky across Britain, with detailed maps of England’s counties, districts, National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) and National Character Areas. You can also generate a map based on a postcode area. All of the maps can be printed easily, too, helping you to understand where the brightest and darkest places are in your local area.
The maps are based on data captured by an American weather satellite in September 2015 that passes over the UK at 1.30 am. We worked with LUC who analysed the data and created these ground-breaking maps.