Sarasota, FL Night Sky Brightness
Sarasota, FL's night sky, measured from orbit
Sarasota's sky measures inner-city here. Among the brightest skies in this dataset. Usually just the Moon and a few of the brightest stars or planets cut through. Sarasota's sky is brighter than 99.3% of the 3,206 cities in this dataset.
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.
The nearest darker sky to Sarasota
11 miles from Sarasota, straight-line, sits Bradenton, FL, the nearest city here with a darker sky than Sarasota's own inner-city band.
Bradenton, FL is itself still a measured city, not a designated dark-sky park, this only compares against the 3,206 places this dataset covers.
How Sarasota compares nationally
Sarasota, FL has a population of about 57,764, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Sarasota's position, 3,167 of 3,206, darkest to brightest, comes from the sampling method the methodology guide sets out.