Pensacola, FL's night sky, measured from orbit

Satellite radiance puts Pensacola in the suburban edge band. A noticeable glow near the horizon. Brighter stars and constellations are easy to pick out; the Milky Way is washed out. Only 23.4% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Pensacola.

Note the source: a satellite reading of upward light, not a visual Bortle scale reading. The two measure related but different things.

The nearest darker sky to Pensacola

Crestview, FL, about 42 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the rural band, one step darker than Pensacola. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

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

How Pensacola compares nationally

Pensacola, FL counts roughly 53,898 residents, among the 3,206 US cities this site tracks. Pensacola places 747 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.