What the night sky looks like over Sauk Rapids, MN

Sauk Rapids reads as suburban edge on this dataset's scale. A noticeable glow near the horizon. Brighter stars and constellations are easy to pick out; the Milky Way is washed out. That's brighter than 37.7% of the 3,206 US cities in this dataset.

The number comes from orbit, not a stargazer's logbook, so treat it as an estimate of sky glow rather than a certified Bortle class.

How far Sauk Rapids is from a meaningfully darker sky

St. Cloud, MN, about 5 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the rural band, one step darker than Sauk Rapids. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

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

Sauk Rapids against the rest of the dataset

Sauk Rapids, MN counts roughly 13,832 residents, among the 3,206 US cities this site tracks. Among all 3,206 cities here, Sauk Rapids ranks 1,202 from darkest to brightest, 1 being the darkest measured.