What the night sky looks like over St. Paul, MN

Satellite radiance puts St. Paul in the inner-city band. Among the brightest skies in this dataset. Usually just the Moon and a few of the brightest stars or planets cut through. St. Paul's sky is brighter than 99.6% of the 3,206 cities in this dataset.

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 St. Paul is from a meaningfully darker sky

3 miles from St. Paul, straight-line, sits West St. Paul, MN, the nearest city here with a darker sky than St. Paul's own inner-city band.

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

St. Paul against the rest of the dataset

St. Paul, MN has a population of about 307,465, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Among all 3,206 cities here, St. Paul ranks 3,176 from darkest to brightest, 1 being the darkest measured.