Saguenay Stargazing & Astronomy Report

Key Sky Quality Metrics

SQM (mag/arcsec²)

17.92

Bortle class

Class 9 (Class 9)

Darkness Quotient

22%

Dataset

March 2026

Inner city sky

Stargazing in Saguenay

Saguenay is a regional city in Quebec's Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean area, shaped by a broad fjord landscape and a string of built-up districts spread along the water.

With a Darkness Quotient of 22%, it sits in the High Light Pollution tier — brighter than many smaller Canadian communities, though not as relentlessly illuminated as the largest continental metros.

For practical observing from within the city, the most reliable targets are the Moon, planets, double stars and the brightest open clusters. Brighter showpiece objects such as Orion Nebula can sometimes be picked out with care, but faint galaxies, nebulae and the Milky Way are largely overwhelmed by urban skyglow.

The encouraging part is that much darker skies are not especially far away. A strong improvement appears roughly 65–80 kilometres from the city to the south-east and south-south-east, near L'Anse-Saint-Jean and Near Lac-Pikauba, Quebec.

The map shows Saguenay as a pronounced island of urban brightness, with a bright yellow-to-red core surrounded by a broad blue and grey halo. That pattern suggests a concentrated built-up area whose glow spills well beyond the city itself, especially along the settled corridor.

Even so, the surrounding region darkens fairly quickly compared with many big-city maps. Large areas to the north and north-east fall away into much darker tones, while the south-east also shows a route out towards significantly darker countryside despite smaller pockets of settlement.

Compared with its surroundings, Saguenay stands out clearly as the dominant local light source rather than part of one vast continuous conurbation. In practical terms, that means the city sky is bright overhead, but the wider region offers genuine escape from the glow once you get beyond the urban halo.

What the sky is like overhead

Looking straight up from Saguenay, the sky is heavily affected by urban lighting. At the zenith the reading is 17.92 SQM, corresponding to an inner-city level of brightness where the background sky rarely becomes properly dark.

In practice, the familiar brightest constellations still come through, but they sit against a washed-out backdrop and the fainter linking stars are often lost. The Moon and planets remain easy targets, while subtle naked-eye features simply do not have the contrast they need.

For visual observers, this means overhead viewing is workable for bright objects but limited for deep-sky exploration. For imaging, careful target choice and filtering matter far more here than they would under rural skies.

• Near Rivière-Mistassini, Quebec

  Direction

  NW

  Distance (km)

  265.6

  SQM

  21.72

  Bortle

  2

  Milky Way, faint nebulae, deep-sky imaging

• Near Lac-Pikauba, Quebec

  Direction

  SSE

  Distance (km)

  77.1

  SQM

  21.57

  Bortle

  3

  Milky Way visible, broadband DSO imaging

• Near L'Anse-Saint-Jean, Quebec

  Direction

  SE

  Distance (km)

  66.9

  SQM

  21.52

  Bortle

  3

  Milky Way visible, broadband DSO imaging

Genuinely dark skies are quite accessible from Saguenay rather than requiring an all-day journey. The nearest strong step up is about 65–80 kilometres away to the south-east and south-south-east, with excellent conditions near L'Anse-Saint-Jean and Near Lac-Pikauba, Quebec.

If you are willing to travel farther, even darker skies open up to the north-west near Rivière-Mistassini, where conditions reach a truly remote standard.

• Within 100 km

  Place

  Near Lac-Pikauba, Quebec

  Direction

  SSE

  Distance (km)

  77.1

  SQM

  21.57

  Bortle

  3

• Within 500 km

  Place

  Near Rivière-Mistassini, Quebec

  Direction

  NW

  Distance (km)

  265.6

  SQM

  21.72

  Bortle

  2

Long-term sky trend

Saguenay's long-term record is fairly steady overall, with a slight improvement in darkness over time rather than a clear worsening trend. The trend slope is positive at about 0.0369 SQM per year, which points to a gradual bright-sky easing across the full series.

The earliest reading in the record is 17.85 SQM, while the latest is 17.92 SQM, so the city itself ends the series very close to where it began. Across all 76 datasets, the mean is 18.38 SQM, with occasional much darker readings in the historical range.

That broad spread between the minimum and maximum values suggests conditions are influenced not just by lighting on the ground but also by atmospheric transparency, snow cover and seasonal reflectivity. In other words, the underlying picture is of a bright urban sky with modest long-term stability.

From within Saguenay, bright and high-contrast targets are the sensible choice. The Moon, planets and double stars cope well with the city's bright background, and the brightest open clusters can still be rewarding in binoculars or a telescope.

A few showcase deep-sky objects remain possible, but with compromise. The Orion Nebula and the brightest globular clusters can still be attempted, though they lose contrast and subtle structure under the urban glow.

For anything faint or expansive, a darker site makes a dramatic difference. The Milky Way, weaker galaxies, diffuse nebulae and meteor observing are all far better once you are outside the city's light dome.

• Moon
• planets
• double stars
• brightest open clusters

• Orion Nebula (M42)
• brightest globular clusters

• Milky Way
• faint galaxies
• broadband nebulae
• meteor showers