Ephrata, PA Night Sky Brightness
Ephrata, PA's night sky, measured from orbit
Ephrata's sky measures suburban here. Light dome dominates much of the sky. Only the brightest stars and planets stand out clearly. Only 60.1% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Ephrata.
Note the source: a satellite reading of upward light, not a visual Bortle scale reading. The two measure related but different things, explained in the Bortle scale guide.
The nearest darker sky to Ephrata
19 miles from Ephrata, straight-line, sits Columbia, PA, the nearest city here with a darker sky than Ephrata's own suburban band.
Columbia, PA is itself still a measured city, not a designated dark-sky park, this only compares against the 3,206 places this dataset covers.
How Ephrata compares nationally
Ephrata, PA has a population of about 13,719, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Ephrata's position, 1,915 of 3,206, darkest to brightest, comes from the sampling method the methodology guide sets out.