Marfa Lights Map

What am I looking at?

Identify a light

Enter the compass bearing of a light you see from the Viewing Area, or tap the map or the panorama below. The tool lists every known light source on that line and, for roads, how bright a car there would look.

Bearing °

Elevation °

± window

Camera sky finder

View from the platform

Panorama

The skyline, roads, towers and railroad as seen from the Viewing Area, south-southeast (left) to west-northwest (right). Blue is the known-source mask (where an ordinary, catalogued light can appear), shaded by how many such lights pass each spot per hour on a typical night. Tap where you see the light, relative to the mountains, to set both bearing and elevation.

The platform you are standing on. Photo: Allison Meier, 2021, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Map layers

Layers and refraction

Basemap

Refraction coefficient k At k = 0.13 the roads show the standard classes. Move the slider to see which stretches a headlight could be seen from under other conditions. Clear, calm nights with a surface temperature inversion raise k.

Field log

Record a sighting

Saves the current bearing, elevation and time on this device only. Download your log as a spreadsheet file when you're done.

Saw something you can't explain? Turn a saved sighting into a full report →

Marfa Lights map and light identifier