Grass Valley, CA's night sky, measured from orbit

Grass Valley reads as suburban edge on this dataset's scale. A noticeable glow near the horizon. Brighter stars and constellations are easy to pick out; the Milky Way is washed out. That's brighter than 38.4% 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 Grass Valley

Rancho Cordova, CA, about 46 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the rural band, one step darker than Grass Valley. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

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

How Grass Valley compares nationally

Grass Valley, CA has a population of about 14,085, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Grass Valley places 1,226 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.