Carson, NV's night sky, measured from orbit

Carson's sky measures suburban edge here. 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 30.6% of the 3,206 US 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.

How far Carson is from a meaningfully darker sky

The closest place in this dataset with a meaningfully darker sky is South Lake Tahoe, CA, roughly 20 miles away in a straight line, rated rural. Road distance will be more.

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

How Carson compares nationally

Carson, NV counts roughly 58,148 residents, among the 3,206 US cities this site tracks. Carson places 977 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.