Aurora, CO's night sky, measured from orbit

Aurora reads as rural on this dataset's scale. Little local light dome. Most stars are visible; the Milky Way is faint but often findable away from town lights. Aurora's sky is brighter than 5.5% 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 Aurora

Evans, CO, about 44 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the dark sky band, one step darker than Aurora. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

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

How Aurora compares nationally

About 403,130 people live in Aurora, CO, sized enough to appear in this dataset of 3,206 incorporated US cities. Aurora places 177 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.