Gulf Shores, AL's night sky, measured from orbit

Gulf Shores'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 13.2% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Gulf Shores.

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 Gulf Shores

Daphne, AL, about 26 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the rural band, one step darker than Gulf Shores. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

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

How Gulf Shores compares nationally

Gulf Shores, AL has a population of about 17,431, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Gulf Shores places 422 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.