What the night sky looks like over Eureka, CA

Satellite radiance puts Eureka in the suburban edge band. A noticeable glow near the horizon. Brighter stars and constellations are easy to pick out; the Milky Way is washed out. Only 15.4% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Eureka.

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.

How far Eureka is from a meaningfully darker sky

6 miles from Eureka, straight-line, sits Arcata, CA, the nearest city here with a darker sky than Eureka's own suburban edge band.

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

Eureka against the rest of the dataset

Eureka, CA has a population of about 25,412, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Among all 3,206 cities here, Eureka ranks 492 from darkest to brightest, 1 being the darkest measured.