Orange, CA Night Sky Brightness
Orange, CA's night sky, measured from orbit
Orange reads as urban on this dataset's scale. Sky glow overhead most nights. Typically only planets, the Moon, and a handful of the brightest stars are visible. Orange's sky is brighter than 92% of the 3,206 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, explained in the Bortle scale guide.
The nearest darker sky to Orange
4 miles from Orange, straight-line, sits Santa Ana, CA, the nearest city here with a darker sky than Orange's own urban band.
Santa Ana, 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 Orange compares nationally
Orange, CA has a population of about 137,941, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Orange's position, 2,934 of 3,206, darkest to brightest, comes from the sampling method the methodology guide sets out.