Columbus, OH Night Sky Brightness
What the night sky looks like over Columbus, OH
Columbus reads as urban on this dataset's scale. Sky glow overhead most nights. Typically only planets, the Moon, and a handful of the brightest stars are visible. That's brighter than 97.5% of the 3,206 US cities in this dataset.
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 Bortle scale guide covers why.
Where to go for a darker sky near Columbus
3 miles from Columbus, straight-line, sits Bexley, OH, the nearest city here with a darker sky than Columbus's own urban band.
Bexley, OH is itself still a measured city, not a designated dark-sky park, this only compares against the 3,206 places this dataset covers.
Columbus against the rest of the dataset
Columbus, OH has a population of about 933,263, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Among all 3,206 cities here, Columbus ranks 3,109 from darkest to brightest, 1 being the darkest measured, by the sampling the methodology guide documents.