What the night sky looks like over Altoona, PA

Satellite radiance puts Altoona in the urban band. Sky glow overhead most nights. Typically only planets, the Moon, and a handful of the brightest stars are visible. Altoona's sky is brighter than 88.7% of the 3,206 cities in this dataset.

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.

How far Altoona is from a meaningfully darker sky

Johnstown, PA, about 30 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the suburban band, one step darker than Altoona. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

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

Altoona against the rest of the dataset

Altoona, PA has a population of about 42,719, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Among all 3,206 cities here, Altoona ranks 2,827 from darkest to brightest, 1 being the darkest measured.