Lancaster, PA: how dark is the sky here?

Satellite radiance puts Lancaster in the urban band. Sky glow overhead most nights. Typically only planets, the Moon, and a handful of the brightest stars are visible. Lancaster's sky is brighter than 93.3% of the 3,206 cities in this dataset.

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 Lancaster is from a meaningfully darker sky

10 miles from Lancaster, straight-line, sits Columbia, PA, the nearest city here with a darker sky than Lancaster's own urban band.

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

How Lancaster compares nationally

Lancaster, PA has a population of about 58,441, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Lancaster places 2,973 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.