Los Banos, CA's night sky, measured from orbit

Los Banos's sky measures suburban here. Light dome dominates much of the sky. Only the brightest stars and planets stand out clearly. Only 80.6% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Los Banos.

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

How far Los Banos is from a meaningfully darker sky

Atwater, CA, about 24 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the suburban edge band, one step darker than Los Banos. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

Atwater, 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 Los Banos compares nationally

Los Banos, CA counts roughly 48,684 residents, among the 3,206 US cities this site tracks. Los Banos places 2,571 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.