DarkSkyCheck

Boise City, ID Night Sky Brightness

How dark is the sky in Boise City, ID?

Suburban edge
17.5 nW/cm2/sr

Boise City 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. That's brighter than 36.7% of the 3,206 US cities in this dataset.

Worth remembering: this is satellite radiance, not a ground observation. A true Bortle rating needs a human eye at night, this is the closest large-scale substitute, covered fully in the Bortle scale guide.

How far Boise City is from a meaningfully darker sky

Garden City, ID, about 6 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the rural band, one step darker than Boise City. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

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

Boise City against the rest of the dataset

Boise City, ID counts roughly 237,963 residents, among the 3,206 US cities this site tracks. Ranked against the other 3,206 cities here by the methodology guide's own sampling, Boise City comes in at 1,172, darkest to brightest.