Kirkland, WA's night sky, measured from orbit

Kirkland reads as suburban edge on this dataset's scale. A noticeable glow near the horizon. Brighter stars and constellations are easy to pick out; the Milky Way is washed out. That's brighter than 16.2% 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.

Where to go for a darker sky near Kirkland

6 miles from Kirkland, straight-line, sits Lake Forest Park, WA, the nearest city here with a darker sky than Kirkland's own suburban edge band.

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

How Kirkland compares nationally

Kirkland, WA has a population of about 95,499, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Kirkland places 517 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.