Sparks, NV Night Sky Brightness
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, explained in the Bortle scale guide.
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's position, 1,042 of 3,206, darkest to brightest, comes from the sampling method the methodology guide sets out.