Poway, CA's night sky, measured from orbit

Poway reads as rural on this dataset's scale. Little local light dome. Most stars are visible; the Milky Way is faint but often findable away from town lights. Only 6.9% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Poway.

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

Where to go for a darker sky near Poway

The closest place in this dataset with a meaningfully darker sky is Banning, CA, roughly 67 miles away in a straight line, rated dark sky. Road distance will be more.

Banning, 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 Poway compares nationally

Poway, CA has a population of about 49,435, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Poway places 221 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.