Helena, MT's night sky, measured from orbit

Helena's sky measures urban here. Sky glow overhead most nights. Typically only planets, the Moon, and a handful of the brightest stars are visible. That's brighter than 87.1% 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.

How far Helena is from a meaningfully darker sky

69 miles from Helena, straight-line, sits Belgrade, MT, the nearest city here with a darker sky than Helena's own urban band.

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

How Helena compares nationally

Helena, MT has a population of about 34,729, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Helena places 2,778 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.