Aiken, SC: how dark is the sky here?

Aiken reads as suburban edge on this dataset's scale. A noticeable glow near the horizon. Brighter stars and constellations are easy to pick out; the Milky Way is washed out. Aiken's sky is brighter than 17.3% of the 3,206 cities in this dataset.

This comes from a satellite measuring light radiating upward, not a person's eyes on the ground, so it isn't the same as a Bortle class, though the two track each other closely.

Where to go for a darker sky near Aiken

Columbia, SC, about 59 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the rural band, one step darker than Aiken. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

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

How Aiken compares nationally

Aiken, SC has a population of about 32,694, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Aiken places 553 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.