Astrophotography in the UAE: Where to Find Dark Skies near Dubai and Abu Dhabi

The cities of the UAE are brightly lit, and almost everyone lives in them. From Dubai Marina or central Abu Dhabi you will not see the Milky Way. The good news is that the desert and the mountains start close to the cities, and a dark sky is often only an hour or two away.

There is no DarkSky International certified place in the Emirates yet. What there is: a national park in Sharjah that runs regular stargazing, high ground in the north, and the edge of the Empty Quarter in the south-west.

Mleiha National Park, Sharjah

Mleiha is just over an hour’s drive from Sharjah and Dubai, and its operators run regular stargazing nights with telescope observations of planets and deep-sky objects led by guides. The park offers simple overnight camping and glamping tents during the cooler season, so you can stay the night rather than drive back after the session.

The same area holds the Mleiha Archaeological Centre, so the daytime part of the trip takes care of itself.

Suits: a first night under a dark sky for anyone living in Dubai or Sharjah, and families.

Jebel Jais and the Hajar mountains, Ras Al Khaimah

The road up Jebel Jais climbs high into the Hajar mountains. Height gets you above some of the haze and humidity that sit over the coast, and the nights are noticeably cooler, which helps both comfort and camera noise.

The mountain is popular, and busy viewpoints mean headlights. Look for quieter pull-offs and side valleys, and expect the coastal glow of Ras Al Khaimah to the west.

Suits: Moon and planets on steadier nights, and Milky Way shots with mountain foregrounds.

Liwa and the edge of the Empty Quarter, Abu Dhabi

Liwa sits at the northern edge of the Rub’ al Khali, the Empty Quarter. South of the oasis towns the dunes run on with almost no artificial light, and the horizon is open in every direction.

Go with a proper desert vehicle and someone who knows the sand, or stay at a desert camp and walk away from its lights. Wind lifts dust easily here, so a clear afternoon is no promise of a clear night.

Suits: a long weekend in the desert, and wide panoramas.

Choosing the season

The cooler months are the imaging season. In summer, heat and humidity stay high through the night, dew forms on everything near the coast, and camera sensors run hot. The cooler season trades that for long, mild nights.

The galactic core is a summer target, so the best compromise for Milky Way images is the edges of the cool season, in spring and autumn, when it is up for part of the night.

What to shoot from the UAE

At about 24 degrees north, the UAE sees far more of the southern sky than Europe does. Omega Centauri and the tail of Scorpius both rise above the horizon at the right times of year, alongside everything the northern sky offers.

Processing what you bring home

Bring the frames home and Akastroid stacks and finishes them on your own computer, with nothing uploaded. Its gradient removal is useful here: even an hour out of Dubai, the city glow adds a slope to one side of the frame. The free download processes three sessions and allows one export, enough to put one Mleiha or Liwa night through. If you buy a licence later, PayPal works for paying from the UAE, with a PayPal account or a debit or credit card.

For a night that started in town, what to image from a light-polluted sky helps you choose targets, and removing light-pollution gradients explains what happens to that glow.