San Jose, CA Night Sky Brightness
San Jose, CA's night sky, measured from orbit
Satellite radiance puts San Jose 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 28.6% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than San Jose.
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.
Where to go for a darker sky near San Jose
12 miles from San Jose, straight-line, sits Saratoga, CA, the nearest city here with a darker sky than San Jose's own suburban edge band.
Saratoga, 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 San Jose compares nationally
San Jose, CA counts roughly 997,368 residents, among the 3,206 US cities this site tracks. San Jose's position, 914 of 3,206, darkest to brightest, comes from the sampling method the methodology guide sets out.