Portales, NM Night Sky Brightness
How dark is the sky in Portales, NM?
Satellite radiance puts Portales in the suburban band. Light dome dominates much of the sky. Only the brightest stars and planets stand out clearly. That's brighter than 48.3% of the 3,206 US cities in this dataset.
Worth remembering: this is satellite radiance, not a ground observation. A true Bortle rating needs a human eye at night, this is the closest large-scale substitute, covered fully in the Bortle scale guide.
How far Portales is from a meaningfully darker sky
Canyon, TX, about 99 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the suburban edge band, one step darker than Portales. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.
Canyon, TX is itself still a measured city, not a designated dark-sky park, this only compares against the 3,206 places this dataset covers.
Portales against the rest of the dataset
About 11,789 people live in Portales, NM, sized enough to appear in this dataset of 3,206 incorporated US cities. Ranked against the other 3,206 cities here by the methodology guide's own sampling, Portales comes in at 1,540, darkest to brightest.