Ionia, MI: how dark is the sky here?

Ionia'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 21.2% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Ionia.

This comes from a satellite measuring light radiating upward, not a person's eyes on the ground, so it isn't the same as a Bortle class, though the two track each other closely.

How far Ionia is from a meaningfully darker sky

60 miles from Ionia, straight-line, sits Norton Shores, MI, the nearest city here with a darker sky than Ionia's own suburban edge band.

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

How Ionia compares nationally

Ionia, MI has a population of about 12,265, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Ionia places 676 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.