Columbia, SC's night sky, measured from orbit

Columbia 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 3.8% 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.

The nearest darker sky to Columbia

Port Royal, SC, about 117 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the dark sky band, one step darker than Columbia. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

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

How Columbia compares nationally

Columbia, SC counts roughly 144,788 residents, among the 3,206 US cities this site tracks. Columbia places 123 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.