What the night sky looks like over Columbia, IL

Columbia'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. Only 41.9% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Columbia.

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 Columbia

Maryland Heights, MO, about 23 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the rural band, one step darker than Columbia. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

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

Columbia against the rest of the dataset

Columbia, IL has a population of about 10,919, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Among all 3,206 cities here, Columbia ranks 1,336 from darkest to brightest, 1 being the darkest measured.