Scotts Valley, CA's night sky, measured from orbit

Scotts Valley's sky measures suburban edge here. 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 16.8% of the 3,206 US 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.

The nearest darker sky to Scotts Valley

Saratoga, CA, about 15 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the rural band, one step darker than Scotts Valley. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

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 Scotts Valley compares nationally

Scotts Valley, CA has a population of about 11,828, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Scotts Valley places 539 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.