Abilene, TX's night sky, measured from orbit

Abilene's sky measures urban here. Sky glow overhead most nights. Typically only planets, the Moon, and a handful of the brightest stars are visible. Abilene's sky is brighter than 86.9% of the 3,206 cities in this dataset.

Note the source: a satellite reading of upward light, not a visual Bortle scale reading. The two measure related but different things.

The nearest darker sky to Abilene

Sweetwater, TX, about 39 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the suburban edge band, one step darker than Abilene. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

Sweetwater, TX is itself still a measured city, not a designated dark-sky park, this only compares against the 3,206 places this dataset covers.

How Abilene compares nationally

About 130,501 people live in Abilene, TX, sized enough to appear in this dataset of 3,206 incorporated US cities. Abilene places 2,769 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.