Interactive web mapping / Day 1 · Points

Where the night stays dark

International Dark Sky Places

An interactive globe of the 222 places certified as International Dark Sky Places for protecting their night skies.

MapLibre GL JS
Three.js

Dark globe with glowing points and translucent halos marking certified International Dark Sky Places, concentrated in North America and Europe — Map by Jesse Friend. Select the image to explore it at full size.

A closer look

This map shows the certified International Dark Sky Places recognized by DarkSky International. Places must apply for certification, so the map doesn’t include every location with dark skies.

I made the first version for Day 1 of the 30 Day Map Challenge as a rotating Three.js globe, recorded as video. For this portfolio, I rebuilt it as an interactive MapLibre globe. Each point is a certified place, and its halo shows the size of the protected area. Select a place to see its type, certification year, and tier, or filter the map by place type.

Explore the globe

Open in a new tab

Interactive view

Turn the globe, zoom in on a region, and select a place for its details.

Loads content from this site.

If the view does not load here, use “Open in a new tab”.

Places: Spinner, R. et al. (2024), Administrative boundaries of selected certified International Dark Sky Places, GFZ Data Services, doi:10.5880/GFZ.1.4.2024.005, CC BY 4.0. Country borders: Natural Earth.