What the night sky looks like over Box Elder, SD

Box Elder 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. That's brighter than 9.3% of the 3,206 US 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.

The nearest darker sky to Box Elder

The closest place in this dataset with a meaningfully darker sky is Evans, CO, roughly 273 miles away in a straight line, rated dark sky. Road distance will be more.

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.

Box Elder against the rest of the dataset

Box Elder, SD has a population of about 13,887, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Among all 3,206 cities here, Box Elder ranks 297 from darkest to brightest, 1 being the darkest measured.