What the night sky looks like over Milpitas, CA

Satellite radiance puts Milpitas in the urban band. Sky glow overhead most nights. Typically only planets, the Moon, and a handful of the brightest stars are visible. Milpitas's sky is brighter than 85.4% of the 3,206 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.

How far Milpitas is from a meaningfully darker sky

Sunnyvale, CA, about 8 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the suburban band, one step darker than Milpitas. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

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

Milpitas against the rest of the dataset

About 79,746 people live in Milpitas, CA, sized enough to appear in this dataset of 3,206 incorporated US cities. Among all 3,206 cities here, Milpitas ranks 2,724 from darkest to brightest, 1 being the darkest measured.