What the night sky looks like over Southern Pines, NC

Southern Pines reads as rural on this dataset's scale. Little local light dome. Most stars are visible; the Milky Way is faint but often findable away from town lights. Only 5.4% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Southern Pines.

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 Southern Pines is from a meaningfully darker sky

Suffolk, VA, about 186 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the dark sky band, one step darker than Southern Pines. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

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

Southern Pines against the rest of the dataset

Southern Pines, NC has a population of about 16,987, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Among all 3,206 cities here, Southern Pines ranks 173 from darkest to brightest, 1 being the darkest measured.