Oakland, CA Night Sky Brightness
Oakland, CA's night sky, measured from orbit
Oakland's sky measures urban here. Sky glow overhead most nights. Typically only planets, the Moon, and a handful of the brightest stars are visible. Only 95% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Oakland.
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.
Where to go for a darker sky near Oakland
3 miles from Oakland, straight-line, sits Alameda, CA, the nearest city here with a darker sky than Oakland's own urban band.
Alameda, 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 Oakland compares nationally
Oakland, CA counts roughly 443,554 residents, among the 3,206 US cities this site tracks. Oakland's position, 3,028 of 3,206, darkest to brightest, comes from the sampling method the methodology guide sets out.