Laurel, MD's night sky, measured from orbit

Laurel's sky measures urban here. Sky glow overhead most nights. Typically only planets, the Moon, and a handful of the brightest stars are visible. Only 87.4% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Laurel.

Note the source: a satellite reading of upward light, not a visual Bortle scale reading. The two measure related but different things.

How far Laurel is from a meaningfully darker sky

The closest place in this dataset with a meaningfully darker sky is Greenbelt, MD, roughly 7 miles away in a straight line, rated suburban. Road distance will be more.

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

How Laurel compares nationally

Laurel, MD counts roughly 30,238 residents, among the 3,206 US cities this site tracks. Laurel places 2,788 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.