Mercer Island, WA's night sky, measured from orbit

Mercer Island's sky measures rural here. Little local light dome. Most stars are visible; the Milky Way is faint but often findable away from town lights. That's brighter than 9.4% 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.

Where to go for a darker sky near Mercer Island

Bremerton, WA, about 23 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the dark sky band, one step darker than Mercer Island. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

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

How Mercer Island compares nationally

Mercer Island, WA has a population of about 25,302, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Mercer Island places 299 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.