Your sky. Your telescope.
Where you observe from shapes what is worth buying more than any specification does. Tap anywhere on India to see how dark that sky is, what it will realistically show you, and which telescope suits it.
ExcellentGoodModeratePoorVery poor
Where do you observe from?
Tap anywhere on the map, or let us find you. Your sky decides what is worth buying far more than most people expect.
We round your position to about 10 km and never store it.
Frequently asked questions
What telescope is best for my city?
From most Indian cities — Bortle 7 to 9 — the honest answer is a telescope that performs on bright targets: the Moon, the planets, double stars and the brighter clusters. Skyglow removes faint, extended objects like galaxies almost entirely, and no telescope at any price puts them back. Aperture still buys you detail on the Moon and planets, so it is not wasted; it simply is not the thing that decides your experience.
Does light pollution actually affect telescope performance?
It affects what you can see far more than most buyers expect. A dark rural sky and a city sky can differ by several magnitudes in limiting brightness, which is a larger difference than between two telescopes a price band apart. It is why a two-hour drive out of the city will usually do more for your deep-sky observing than an upgrade will.
What is the Bortle scale?
A nine-point scale describing night-sky darkness, from Class 1 — where the Milky Way casts a visible shadow — to Class 9, an inner-city sky where only the Moon, planets and the brightest stars are visible. Most Indian metros sit at Class 8 or 9. The high trans-Himalaya, including the Hanle Dark Sky Reserve, reaches Class 1 to 2.
Are the sky scores on this map measured?
No, and we would rather say so. They are estimates modelled from urban light domes, altitude and regional dryness. We do not have a light-pollution survey of India to draw on, and the published world atlas of night-sky brightness is licensed for non-commercial use only. Treat the map as a guide to relative differences across the country rather than a measurement of any single spot.
Sky conditions vary. These figures are estimates modelled from geographic and urban data, not measurements, and actual observing conditions change with weather, transparency, seeing, the Moon and local lighting. Country outline from DataMeet, used under the MIT licence.