For any newbies reading this particular thread of discussion, it's important to understand that different countries and different parts of the flying community do things differently
Never a truer word, night VFR in my time in Oz was legal in pitch black conditions, all that was needed was VFR weather as defined by regs, and keep clear of cloud, was never said how you do that in pitch black conditions, the following is the report of a fatal night VFR accident by a 16,000 hour pilot. Lessons even learnt by the regulator.
https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/566884...02%20Final.pdf