Albuquerque, NM Night Sky Brightness
What the night sky looks like over Albuquerque, NM
Satellite radiance puts Albuquerque in the urban band. Sky glow overhead most nights. Typically only planets, the Moon, and a handful of the brightest stars are visible. Only 97.7% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Albuquerque.
The number comes from orbit, not a stargazer's logbook, so treat it as an estimate of sky glow rather than a certified Bortle class - the Bortle scale guide covers why.
Where to go for a darker sky near Albuquerque
The closest place in this dataset with a meaningfully darker sky is Rio Rancho, NM, roughly 13 miles away in a straight line, rated suburban edge. Road distance will be more.
Rio Rancho, NM is itself still a measured city, not a designated dark-sky park, this only compares against the 3,206 places this dataset covers.
Albuquerque against the rest of the dataset
Albuquerque, NM has a population of about 560,326, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Among all 3,206 cities here, Albuquerque ranks 3,116 from darkest to brightest, 1 being the darkest measured, by the sampling the methodology guide documents.