How dark is the sky in Santa Clara, CA?

Santa Clara's sky measures urban here. Sky glow overhead most nights. Typically only planets, the Moon, and a handful of the brightest stars are visible. Only 87.4% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Santa Clara.

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.

The nearest darker sky to Santa Clara

The closest place in this dataset with a meaningfully darker sky is Sunnyvale, CA, roughly 4 miles away in a straight line, rated suburban. Road distance will be more.

Sunnyvale, CA is itself still a measured city, not a designated dark-sky park, this only compares against the 3,206 places this dataset covers.

Santa Clara against the rest of the dataset

About 133,132 people live in Santa Clara, CA, sized enough to appear in this dataset of 3,206 incorporated US cities. Among all 3,206 cities here, Santa Clara ranks 2,785 from darkest to brightest, 1 being the darkest measured.