Cape Girardeau, MO Night Sky Brightness
Cape Girardeau, MO's night sky, measured from orbit
Satellite radiance puts Cape Girardeau in the urban band. Sky glow overhead most nights. Typically only planets, the Moon, and a handful of the brightest stars are visible. Only 86.8% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Cape Girardeau.
Note the source: a satellite reading of upward light, not a visual Bortle scale reading. The two measure related but different things, explained in the Bortle scale guide.
How far Cape Girardeau is from a meaningfully darker sky
Jackson, MO, about 7 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the suburban edge band, one step darker than Cape Girardeau. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.
Jackson, MO is itself still a measured city, not a designated dark-sky park, this only compares against the 3,206 places this dataset covers.
How Cape Girardeau compares nationally
Cape Girardeau, MO counts roughly 40,818 residents, among the 3,206 US cities this site tracks. Cape Girardeau's position, 2,766 of 3,206, darkest to brightest, comes from the sampling method the methodology guide sets out.