What the night sky looks like over Imperial Beach, CA

Imperial Beach reads as rural on this dataset's scale. Little local light dome. Most stars are visible; the Milky Way is faint but often findable away from town lights. That's brighter than 9.5% of the 3,206 US cities in this dataset.

The number comes from orbit, not a stargazer's logbook, so treat it as an estimate of sky glow rather than a certified Bortle class.

How far Imperial Beach is from a meaningfully darker sky

The closest place in this dataset with a meaningfully darker sky is Banning, CA, roughly 96 miles away in a straight line, rated dark sky. Road distance will be more.

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

Imperial Beach against the rest of the dataset

Imperial Beach, CA counts roughly 25,568 residents, among the 3,206 US cities this site tracks. Among all 3,206 cities here, Imperial Beach ranks 305 from darkest to brightest, 1 being the darkest measured.