What the night sky looks like over Johnson City, TN

Satellite radiance puts Johnson City in the urban band. Sky glow overhead most nights. Typically only planets, the Moon, and a handful of the brightest stars are visible. That's brighter than 89.3% 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 Johnson City is from a meaningfully darker sky

8 miles from Johnson City, straight-line, sits Elizabethton, TN, the nearest city here with a darker sky than Johnson City's own urban band.

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

Johnson City against the rest of the dataset

Johnson City, TN has a population of about 73,635, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Among all 3,206 cities here, Johnson City ranks 2,846 from darkest to brightest, 1 being the darkest measured.