Sparks, NV's night sky, measured from orbit

Sparks'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 32.7% 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.

How far Sparks is from a meaningfully darker sky

30 miles from Sparks, straight-line, sits Truckee, CA, the nearest city here with a darker sky than Sparks's own suburban edge band.

Truckee, 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 Sparks compares nationally

Sparks, NV has a population of about 111,520, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Sparks places 1,042 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.