Hawthorne, CA's night sky, measured from orbit

Hawthorne reads as urban on this dataset's scale. Sky glow overhead most nights. Typically only planets, the Moon, and a handful of the brightest stars are visible. Hawthorne's sky is brighter than 96% of the 3,206 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.

How far Hawthorne is from a meaningfully darker sky

Manhattan Beach, CA, about 4 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the suburban edge band, one step darker than Hawthorne. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

Manhattan Beach, 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 Hawthorne compares nationally

Hawthorne, CA has a population of about 83,633, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Hawthorne places 3,061 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.