Bay City, MI's night sky, measured from orbit

Satellite radiance puts Bay City in the urban band. Sky glow overhead most nights. Typically only planets, the Moon, and a handful of the brightest stars are visible. Only 86.9% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Bay City.

Note the source: a satellite reading of upward light, not a visual Bortle scale reading. The two measure related but different things.

Where to go for a darker sky near Bay City

The closest place in this dataset with a meaningfully darker sky is Saginaw, MI, roughly 12 miles away in a straight line, rated suburban. Road distance will be more.

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

How Bay City compares nationally

About 32,086 people live in Bay City, MI, sized enough to appear in this dataset of 3,206 incorporated US cities. Bay City places 2,771 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.