Fort Smith, AR's night sky, measured from orbit

Fort Smith's sky measures suburban edge here. A noticeable glow near the horizon. Brighter stars and constellations are easy to pick out; the Milky Way is washed out. Only 29.8% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Fort Smith.

Note the source: a satellite reading of upward light, not a visual Bortle scale reading. The two measure related but different things.

How far Fort Smith is from a meaningfully darker sky

Bella Vista, AR, about 77 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the rural band, one step darker than Fort Smith. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

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

How Fort Smith compares nationally

Fort Smith, AR counts roughly 90,507 residents, among the 3,206 US cities this site tracks. Fort Smith places 951 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.