St. Charles, MO's night sky, measured from orbit

Satellite radiance puts St. Charles in the suburban edge band. A noticeable glow near the horizon. Brighter stars and constellations are easy to pick out; the Milky Way is washed out. Only 24.4% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than St. Charles.

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 St. Charles

Maryland Heights, MO, about 6 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the rural band, one step darker than St. Charles. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

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

How St. Charles compares nationally

St. Charles, MO counts roughly 72,458 residents, among the 3,206 US cities this site tracks. St. Charles places 778 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.