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.

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 places 2,766 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.