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.

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 places 914 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.