Astrophotography in Saudi Arabia: AlUla and AlNufud Dark Sky Parks

Saudi Arabia went from no certified dark sky places to some of the largest in the world in a little over a year. DarkSky International named AlUla’s first parks in 2024, added two more there in 2025, and in December 2025 certified a park in the AlNufud desert that is the largest in the Middle East and North Africa.

For a photographer, that means two things. There are now protected places with lighting rules and visitor programmes, and both of them are large enough that finding your own spot away from the crowds is easy.

AlUla Dark Sky Parks, Medina Province

AlUla Manara and AlGharameel Nature Reserves were certified in 2024 as the first International Dark Sky Park in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. In 2025, Sharaan National Park and Wadi Nakhlah Nature Reserve were added, bringing the protected night-sky area to 6,146 square kilometres. DarkSky International ranks AlUla third in the world by area in the Dark Sky Park category.

The landscape is sandstone cliffs, canyons, desert basins and volcanic formations, with Nabataean heritage sites close by. The Royal Commission for AlUla runs guided stargazing, overnight camping and astronomy programmes, and the certification work replaced old lights with fully shielded, warm fixtures.

Suits: nightscapes with rock formations in the foreground, and anyone who wants a dark sky with good facilities.

AlNufud Dark Sky Park, Hail Province

Certified in December 2025, the AlNufud Dark Sky Park covers 13,416 square kilometres of the AlNufud AlKabir desert in the north of the country, with reddish-orange dunes up to 200 metres high. It is run by ITBA, the authority for the Imam Turki bin Abdullah Royal Reserve, which has opened a visitor centre that explains dark skies and good lighting.

The park is open for night visits on organised trips or for independent camping. Independent campers get an instant permit through the authority’s website, itba.gov.sa.

Suits: wide-field Milky Way panoramas over dunes, and anyone who wants to camp alone under a protected sky.

Planning a night in the desert

The cooler months are the season for camping, when nights are long and comfortable. Summer nights stay hot, which adds noise to uncooled cameras.

Desert nights still bring wind and dust. A calm, clear afternoon is a good sign but no guarantee, so check the dust forecast as well as cloud. Bring more water than you think you need, and tell someone where you are going.

What to shoot from Saudi Arabia

From 26 to 29 degrees north, the sky from AlUla and Hail includes the whole northern sky and a wide band of the southern one. The galactic core stands higher than it does from Europe, and in spring and summer the tail of Scorpius and Omega Centauri clear the southern horizon. In winter, Orion, the Pleiades and the Andromeda Galaxy are high in long nights.

Processing what you bring home

Akastroid stacks and finishes your frames on your own computer, with nothing uploaded, so a session from a desert camp can be processed on the laptop that recorded it. The free download processes three sessions and allows one export, enough to take one AlUla or AlNufud night all the way through. If you buy a licence later, PayPal works for paying from Saudi Arabia, with a PayPal account or a debit or credit card.

For a first Milky Way night with only a camera and a tripod, see the Milky Way without a star tracker, and if you used a smart telescope, smart telescope image processing.