Boone, NC's night sky, measured from orbit

Boone's sky measures suburban here. Light dome dominates much of the sky. Only the brightest stars and planets stand out clearly. Boone's sky is brighter than 61.4% 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 Boone

23 miles from Boone, straight-line, sits Lenoir, NC, the nearest city here with a darker sky than Boone's own suburban band.

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

How Boone compares nationally

About 20,080 people live in Boone, NC, sized enough to appear in this dataset of 3,206 incorporated US cities. Boone places 1,958 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.