Mission Viejo, CA Night Sky Brightness
Mission Viejo, CA's night sky, measured from orbit
Mission Viejo's sky measures suburban edge here. A noticeable glow near the horizon. Brighter stars and constellations are easy to pick out; the Milky Way is washed out. Only 27.1% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Mission Viejo.
Note the source: a satellite reading of upward light, not a visual Bortle scale reading. The two measure related but different things, explained in the Bortle scale guide.
The nearest darker sky to Mission Viejo
Laguna Beach, CA, about 8 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the rural band, one step darker than Mission Viejo. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.
Laguna Beach, 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 Mission Viejo compares nationally
Mission Viejo, CA has a population of about 91,601, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Mission Viejo's position, 865 of 3,206, darkest to brightest, comes from the sampling method the methodology guide sets out.