Albany, NY Night Sky Brightness
Albany, NY's night sky, measured from orbit
Albany 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. Albany's sky is brighter than 37.4% 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, explained in the Bortle scale guide.
How far Albany is from a meaningfully darker sky
North Adams, MA, about 35 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the dark sky band, one step darker than Albany. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.
North Adams, MA is itself still a measured city, not a designated dark-sky park, this only compares against the 3,206 places this dataset covers.
How Albany compares nationally
Albany, NY counts roughly 101,317 residents, among the 3,206 US cities this site tracks. Albany's position, 1,193 of 3,206, darkest to brightest, comes from the sampling method the methodology guide sets out.