DeForest, WI's night sky, measured from orbit

DeForest's sky measures rural here. Little local light dome. Most stars are visible; the Milky Way is faint but often findable away from town lights. That's brighter than 7.7% 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 DeForest is from a meaningfully darker sky

3 miles from DeForest, straight-line, sits Windsor, WI, the nearest city here with a darker sky than DeForest's own rural band.

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

How DeForest compares nationally

About 12,260 people live in DeForest, WI, sized enough to appear in this dataset of 3,206 incorporated US cities. DeForest places 245 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.