La Mesa, CA's night sky, measured from orbit

La Mesa'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 92.7% 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 La Mesa is from a meaningfully darker sky

3 miles from La Mesa, straight-line, sits Lemon Grove, CA, the nearest city here with a darker sky than La Mesa's own urban band.

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

How La Mesa compares nationally

About 60,767 people live in La Mesa, CA, sized enough to appear in this dataset of 3,206 incorporated US cities. La Mesa places 2,955 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.