Richmond, CA Night Sky Brightness
Richmond, CA: how dark is the sky here?
Richmond reads as suburban on this dataset's scale. Light dome dominates much of the sky. Only the brightest stars and planets stand out clearly. Richmond's sky is brighter than 72.6% of the 3,206 cities in this dataset.
This comes from a satellite measuring light radiating upward, not a person's eyes on the ground, so it isn't the same as a Bortle class, though the two track each other closely - see the Bortle scale guide for where they can disagree.
The nearest darker sky to Richmond
El Cerrito, CA, about 4 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the suburban edge band, one step darker than Richmond. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.
El Cerrito, 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 Richmond compares nationally
Richmond, CA has a population of about 115,353, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Richmond places 2,314 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order, ranked by the method in the methodology guide.