Dayton, MN's night sky, measured from orbit

Dayton 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 2.2% 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 Dayton

Otsego, MN, about 9 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the dark sky band, one step darker than Dayton. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

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

How Dayton compares nationally

Dayton, MN has a population of about 10,744, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Dayton places 72 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.