DarkSkyCheck

Le Mars, IA Night Sky Brightness

What the night sky looks like over Le Mars, IA

Suburban
38.4 nW/cm2/sr

Le Mars's sky measures suburban here. Light dome dominates much of the sky. Only the brightest stars and planets stand out clearly. That's brighter than 79% 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 - the Bortle scale guide covers why.

How far Le Mars is from a meaningfully darker sky

57 miles from Le Mars, straight-line, sits Spencer, IA, the nearest city here with a darker sky than Le Mars's own suburban band.

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

Le Mars against the rest of the dataset

Le Mars, IA has a population of about 10,674, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Among all 3,206 cities here, Le Mars ranks 2,520 from darkest to brightest, 1 being the darkest measured, by the sampling the methodology guide documents.