California, USA · 34.05°N 118.24°W · 87 m
Stargazing in Los Angeles
The clearest big-city weather in America, wrapped in the worst light dome.
- Sky quality
- Bortle 9 — inner-city sky
- Clear nights a year
- ≈ 169
- Best month overall
- August
- Milky Way core
- March–October
Only the Moon, the bright planets, the ISS and first-magnitude stars survive the light dome.
Key facts
- Sky quality
- Bortle 9 — inner-city skyBortle class 9
- Average clear nights
- 169 per yearNights averaging under 30% cloud, 10-year ERA5 record
- Best Milky Way season
- March–OctoberPeak month: July, core reaching 27°
- Darkness quality
- Excellent11.1 h of astronomical darkness at its darkest, in December
- Typical cloud cover in July
- 23%69% of nights come in under 30% cloud
- Best month for astrophotography
- AugustAbout 13.5 dark, moon-free, statistically clear nights
- Coordinates
- 34.0522, -118.243787 m elevation · America/Los_Angeles
Questions answered on this page
- Is tonight good for stargazing in Los Angeles?
- Is the Milky Way visible from Los Angeles?
- How many clear nights does Los Angeles get each year?
- What is the best month for astrophotography in Los Angeles?
- How many hours of true darkness does Los Angeles get each month?
- How dark is the sky in Los Angeles on the Bortle scale?
- When is the Milky Way core above the horizon from Los Angeles?
- Should I drive somewhere darker than Los Angeles?
Los Angeles offers something rare: reliable clear skies. Between May and October the region runs a long dry season where cloud-free nights are the default rather than the exception, interrupted mainly by the coastal marine layer that pushes inland after dark in early summer.
The light dome undoes most of it. From the basin the Milky Way is invisible; from the desert side of the San Gabriel Mountains, ninety minutes away, it is spectacular. Angeles Crest, Joshua Tree and the Anza-Borrego desert are the three standard answers, and all three are clearer than the coast.
If the sky here is too bright: Angeles Crest Highway, 50 km north — above the dome and above the marine layer.
Evergreen intelligence
The four questions people ask about Los Angeles
Computed from 10 years of ERA5 reanalysis at these coordinates and a full year of Sun and Moon geometry — not copied from anywhere.
- How many clear nights does Los Angeles have?
- About 169 nights a year average less than 30% cloud cover, based on 10 years of ERA5 daily reanalysis at 34.05, -118.24. The clearest month is August at 71% of nights; when you also require darkness and no Moon, roughly 116 nights a year are genuinely usable for faint targets.
- What is the best month for the Milky Way in Los Angeles?
- July. The galactic centre clears 10° from March to October, and in July it reaches 27° while the sky is astronomically dark, with about 5.0 hours of usable core time a night and 69% of nights averaging under 30% cloud.
- When is it darkest in Los Angeles?
- December gives the most true darkness — an average of 11.1 hours a night with the Sun more than 18° below the horizon.
- When should I plan an astrophotography trip to Los Angeles?
- August offers the most nights that are simultaneously dark, moon-free and statistically clear — about 13.5 of them. Book around the new Moon in that month and keep two spare nights; a single fixed date at any location is a coin toss.
Darkness calendar
Los Angeles month by month
Astronomical darkness and Moon geometry are computed for these coordinates. Cloud figures are ten-year ERA5 daily means. Rating combines darkness, moon-free nights and clear-sky odds.
| Month | Astro darkness | Moon-free dark nights | Avg cloud | Clear nights | Milky Way core | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 11.0 h | 22 | 48% | 35% | — | Workable |
| Feb | 10.1 h | 21 | 41% | 46% | — | Good |
| Mar | 9.1 h | 20 | 49% | 34% | 22° max | Workable |
| Apr | 7.9 h | 19 | 43% | 36% | 26° max | Workable |
| May | 6.7 h | 20 | 45% | 29% | 27° max | Workable |
| Jun | 6.2 h | 21 | 37% | 46% | 27° max | Good |
| Jul | 6.4 h | 19 | 23% | 69% | 27° max | Excellent |
| Aug | 7.5 h | 19 | 22% | 71% | 27° max | Excellent |
| Sep | 8.7 h | 20 | 29% | 58% | 22° max | Good |
| Oct | 9.8 h | 22 | 28% | 56% | 15° max | Good |
| Nov | 10.7 h | 24 | 38% | 47% | — | Good |
| Dec | 11.1 h | 25 | 50% | 32% | — | Workable |
"Moon-free dark nights" counts nights with at least two hours of astronomical darkness during which the Moon stays below the horizon. "Clear nights" is the share of days in the ERA5 record averaging under 30% cloud cover.
Practical
What Los Angeles is actually good for
- Dry-season reliability
- Planetary work
- Fast escapes to desert dark sky
For a decision on a specific night rather than a season, the SnapCosmos Night Engine scores tonight and the next six nights from these coordinates — . The method, weighting and known limits are documented on the Night Engine page, and its measured accuracy is published here.
FAQ
Common questions about the sky in Los Angeles
- Can you see the Milky Way in Los Angeles?
- Not from Los Angeles itself — the sky there is bortle 9 — inner-city sky, which washes the Milky Way out completely. Angeles Crest Highway, 50 km north — above the dome and above the marine layer.
- When is the best time of year to stargaze in Los Angeles?
- It depends on what you want to see, and the month-by-month table on this page ranks every month by hours of astronomical darkness, moon-free nights and ten years of cloud statistics for these exact coordinates.
- How dark does it get in Los Angeles?
- Los Angeles is at latitude 34.1°N, and this page computes the hours of true astronomical darkness — Sun more than 18° below the horizon — for every month of the year at that latitude.
- Is tonight a good night in Los Angeles?
- The SnapCosmos Night Engine scores tonight for these coordinates against the coming week using live cloud forecasts, Moon geometry and darkness, and returns a single go, wait or skip recommendation.
Where these numbers come from
- Ten-year cloud-cover climatology and historical night rankingERA5 reanalysisECMWF / Copernicus Climate Change Service
- Hourly cloud cover, precipitation, humidity and visibility forecastsOpen-Meteo forecast and archive APIOpen-Meteo
- Sun, Moon and planet positions, rise and set times, twilight phasesAstronomy Engine (VSOP87 / ELP2000 series)Don Cross, after the IMCCE and JPL analytical theories
- Bortle class and sky-brightness context for each locationWorld Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness (Falchi et al., 2016)Science Advances / Light Pollution Map
- Definitions of civil, nautical and astronomical twilight, and lunar phase conventionsAstronomical Applications DepartmentUnited States Naval Observatory
Figures on this page last recomputed .
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